Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
VoltaireRead
Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that everything has a reason or cause, dismissing the randomness implied by 'chance.'
In this quote, Voltaire asserts that the concept of chance is nonsensical because it overlooks the underlying reasons or causes that give rise to events and phenomena. This perspective suggests that understanding causality is essential to grasp the nature of existence, indicating that everything happens for a reason and that randomness does not truly exist.
Themes
ChanceCausePhilosophyVoltaireExistence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a debate about free will versus determinism.
More from Voltaire
All quotes βHe was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
VoltaireRead
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
VoltaireRead
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
VoltaireRead
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
VoltaireRead
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
VoltaireRead
Similar quotes
Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.
Thomas PaineRead
The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ's name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them.
Pope FrancisRead
If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.
PythagorasRead
If in a discussion of many matters ... we are not able to give perfectly exact and self-consistent accounts, do not be surprised: rather we would be content if we provide accounts that are second to none in probability.
PlatoRead
The humanity that is given to other people isn't given to us. There is an expendability that comes along with being African American.
Sterling K. BrownRead
Man is a creative animal, doomed to strive toward a goal, engaged in full-time engineering.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead