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 die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.

Voltaire

More information about this quote
Topic
Approaching death

Author

Voltaire
Language
French
Time
1778 1770s 18th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Voltaire. Note to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagniere. 28 Feb. 1778.

Another quote from the 1770s

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Amazing Grace

Read the lyrics to this hymn at hymnary.org
More information about this quote
Topic
Salvation Grace

Author

John Newton
Source
Amazing Grace
Medium
Hymn Song
Language
English
Time
1779 1770s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Newton, John. 'Faith's Review and Expectation." Olney Hymns. London: W. Oliver, 1779.

Another quote originally in French

The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.

Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

Buy The Prisoner at Amazon Buy The Prisoner at Amazon
More information about this quote
Topic
Travel Discovery Different perspectives Empathy

Author

Marcel Proust
Source
The Prisoner In Search of Lost Time
Medium
Novel
Genre
Modernist literature
Language
French
Time
1922 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. La Prisonnière [The Prisoner]. Paris: Gallimard, 1923.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. The Prisoner. Penguin Classics, 2019.