Voltaire: "It is lamentable that..."

"It is lamentable that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind." 

Voltaire - (1694-1778) 

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Voltaire's Wikiquotes

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire

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Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all, and others to persecute those who reason.

It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. (This quote was one of my Dad's favorites.)

One always speaks badly when we have nothing to say.

• Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.
• The best is the enemy of the good.
• "La Bégueule" (Contes, 1772)
• Variant translations:
  The perfect is the enemy of the good.
  The better is the enemy of the good.
• Note: Voltaire cites this saying in his poem "La Bégueule" ("The prude woman") while ascribing it to an unnamed "Italian sage"; he also gives the saying (without attribution) in Italian (Il meglio è l'inimico del bene) in the article "Art Dramatique" ("Dramatic Art", 1770) in the Dictionnaire philosophique.

Que les supplices des criminels soient utiles. Un homme pendu n’est bon à rien, et un homme condamné aux ouvrages publics sert encore la patrie, et est une leçon vivante.

• Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.
• "Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789)

• Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.
• Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
• "Liberty of the Press," Dictionnaire philosophique (1785-1789).

• La superstition met le monde entier en flammes; la philosophie les éteint.
  • Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.
    • Dictionnaire philosophique (1822), "Superstition".

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

• Je meurs en adorant Dieu, en aimant mes amis, en ne haïssant pas mes ennemis et en détestant la superstition.
• I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.
• Déclaration de Voltaire, note to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagnière (28 February 1778).