Voltaire Quotes: How Believing Absurdities Can Lead to Atrocities

„He who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.“

VoltaireVoltaire shows how believing in absurdities can lead to atrocities – a call for critical thinking and seeking truth.
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Voltaire, born François-Marie Arouet, was an 18th-century French philosopher, writer, and Enlightenment thinker known for his wit and advocacy of freedom of speech and tolerance.

This quote reminds us how dangerous accepting irrationality can be – it can pave the way to terrible actions. Since Richard Dawkins' *The God Delusion* (2007) and Steven Pinker's *The Violence: A New History of Humankind* (2011), the English phrase "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities" has also been widely used in German. In this or a similar form, the English version has been attributed to Voltaire since the 19th century – usually without precise source attribution. This is based on the... "qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste" from Voltaire's Questions sur les miracles, 11th letter (1765), 1777 books.google, 1784 Google Books, which instead of "atrocities" only speaks of injustice.


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Literature on mass media
Voltaire|covid1984, feudalism, mass media, politics, tyranny

Quote by Voltaire about how believing absurdities can lead to committing atrocities

François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), better known by his pen name Voltaire, was a leading figure of the Enlightenment. His works include philosophy, plays, essays, and letters. Voltaire passionately defended human rights, criticized religion, and advocated freedom of expression, making him a pivotal figure in European intellectual history.

Quote by Hannah Arendt about the psychology behind mass propaganda and how people believe contradictory statementsCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness." Hannah Arendt
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