Doubt is not a pleasant condition. But certainty is an absurd one.

Le doute n'est pas un etat bien agreable, mais l'assurance est un etat ridicule.

Voltaire

More information about this quote

Topic

Doubt vs. certainty Doubt and skepticism Certainty

Author

Voltaire

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Occupation

Philosopher Writer

From

France Europe

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Voltaire. Letter to Frederick William. 28 Nov. 1770.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Voltaire about doubt vs. certainty: “Doubt is not a pleasant condition. But certainty is an absurd one.”
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A quote by Voltaire about doubt vs. certainty: “Doubt is not a pleasant condition. But certainty is an absurd one.”
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A quote by Voltaire about doubt vs. certainty: “Doubt is not a pleasant condition. But certainty is an absurd one.”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Voltaire

I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?

Voltaire

Candide

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More information about this quote
Topic
Love of life

Author

Voltaire
Source
Candide
Medium
Novel
Genre
Satire
Language
French
Time
1759 1750s 18th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 12.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 12.

Another quote from the 1770s

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

Alexander Hamilton

New-York Gazetteer

More information about this quote
Topic
Natural law

Author

Alexander Hamilton
Source
The Farmer Refuted New-York Gazetteer
Genre
Political literature
Language
English
Time
1775 1770s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Hamilton, Alexander. "The Farmer Refuted." New-York Gazetteer. New York: James Rivington, 23 Feb. 1775.

Current Citation

Hamilton, Alexander. "The Farmer Refuted &c., [23 February] 1775." Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0057.

Another quote originally in French

To name an object is to take away three-fourths of the pleasure given by a poem. This pleasure consists in guessing little by little to suggest it, that is the ideal.

Jules Huret

More information about this quote
Topic
Names Poetry
Speaker
Stephane Mallarme [Etienne Mallarme]

Author

Jules Huret
Language
French
Time
1891 1890s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Mallarme, Stephane. Quoted in "Sur l'Evolution Litteraire [On Literary Evolution]." Enquete de Huret [Investigation by Jules Huret]. Bibliotheque-Charpentier, 1891.