"All certainty which does not consist in mathematical demonstration is nothing more than the highest probability; there is no other historical certainty." (Voltaire, "A Philosophical Dictionary", 1764)
"Chance is a world void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause." (Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, 1764)
"History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the other hand, is the recital of facts represented as fiction." (Voltaire, "A Philosophical Dictionary", 1764)
"In geometry, as in most sciences, it is very rare that an isolated proposition is of immediate utility. But the theories most powerful in practice are formed of propositions which curiosity alone brought to light, and which long remained useless without its being able to divine in what way they should one day cease to be so. In this sense it may be said, that in real science, no theory, no research, is in effect useless." (Voltaire, "A Philosophical Dictionary", 1764)
"We admit, in geometry, not only infinite magnitudes, that is to say, magnitudes greater than any assignable magnitude, but infinite magnitudes infinitely greater, the one than the other. This astonishes our dimension of brains, which is only about six inches long, five broad, and six in depth, in the largest heads." (Voltaire, "A Philosophical Dictionary", 1764)
"Mathematics must subdue the flights of our reason; they are the staff of the blind; no one can take a step without them; and to them and experience is due all that is certain in physics." (Voltaire)
"Show all these fanatics a little geometry, and they learn it quite easily. But, strangely enough, their minds are not thereby rectified. They perceive the truths of geometry, but it does not teach them to weigh probabilities. Their minds have set hard. They will reason in a topsy-turvy wall all their lives, and I am sorry for it." (Voltaire)
"The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe." (Voltaire)
"The mathematics will always be a kind of mystery to the bulk of the nation, and consequently will always be an object of veneration." (Voltaire)
"This method of subjecting the infinite to algebraic manipulations is called differential and integral calculus. It is the art of numbering and measuring with precision things the existence of which we cannot even conceive. Indeed, would you not think that you are being laughed at, when told that there are lines infinitely great which form infinitely small angles? Or that a line which is straight so long as it is finite would, by changing its direction infinitely little, become an infinite curve? Or that there are infinite squares, infinite cubes, and infinities of infinities, one greater than another, and that, as compared with the ultimate infinitude, those which precede it are as nought. All these things at first appear as excess of frenzy; yet, they bespeak the great scope and subtlety of the human spirit, for they have led to the discovery of truths hitherto undreamt of." (Voltaire)
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