Voltaire Quotes About History

We have collected for you the TOP of Voltaire's best quotes about History! Here are collected all the quotes about History starting from the birthday of the Writer – November 21, 1694! We hope you will be inspired to new achievements with our constantly updated collection of quotes. At the moment, this page contains 21 sayings of Voltaire about History. We will be happy if you share our collection of quotes with your friends on social networks!
  • History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

  • The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.

  • All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

    1759 Candide, ch.30.
  • History in general is a collection of crimes, follies, and misfortunes among which we have now and then met with a few virtues, and some happy times.

    Voltaire, John Morley, William F. Fleming, Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh (1904). “The Works of Voltaire: Ancient and modern history”
  • This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

    Essai sur l'Histoire Generale et sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des Nations ch. 70 (1756)
  • All the arts are brothers; each one is a light to the others.

  • History never repeats itself. Man always does.

  • What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

    Francois Voltaire (1977). “The Portable Voltaire”, p.148, Penguin
  • History is only the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below.

  • The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.

  • A torch lighted in the forests of America set all Europe in conflagration.

  • History is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play upon the dead.

  • History contains little beyond a list of people who have accommodate themselves with other people's property.

  • All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon

  • Historians are gossips who tease the dead

  • He was not the greatest of men but he was the greatest of kings.

  • History consists of a series of accumulated imaginative inventions.

  • History should be written as philosophy.

  • History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.

  • Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

    L'Ingenu ch. 10 (1767) See Gibbon 4
  • History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the other hand, is the recital of facts represented as fiction.

    Voltaire (1955). “Voltaire's Alphabet of wit”
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