Q0315

“Men must tolerate one another.” — Voltaire (Treatise on Tolerance)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Treatise on Tolerance. Theme: being.

English

Men must tolerate one another.
Thinker Voltaire
School Political Liberalism
Source Treatise on Tolerance
Theme Being
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Treatise on Tolerance and files it under Political Liberalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Voltaire

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778) was the French Enlightenment’s sharpest satirist and campaigner for toleration, author of Candide and countless polemics. Imprisoned in the Bastille, exiled in England, resident at Cirey and Ferney, he fought judicial fanaticism in cases such as Calas.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Paul Tillich and Avicenna), being is framed through Africana Philosophy and Religious Existentialism. Some passages define being; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through being.

Concepts in this quote

Being
Being appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat being as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Voltaire. (n.d.). Men must tolerate one another. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0315

MLA: Voltaire. “Men must tolerate one another..” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0315.

Chicago: Voltaire. “Men must tolerate one another..” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0315.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “Men must tolerate one another.”?

The passage is attributed to Voltaire, Treatise on Tolerance. The archive attributes this English wording to Treatise on Tolerance and files it under Political Liberalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Voltaire mean by being?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Paul Tillich and Avicenna), being is framed through Africana Philosophy and Religious Existentialism. Some passages define being; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through being.

Same thinker

More from Voltaire

  1. We must cultivate our garden.
  2. Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
  3. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
  4. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

All quotations by Voltaire

Same theme

More on being

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the being theme