Q0339

Voltaire

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Thinker Voltaire
School Enlightenment
Source Épître à l'auteur du livre des Trois Imposteurs (1768)
Theme Faith
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Épître à l'auteur du livre des Trois Imposteurs (1768), within the tradition of Enlightenment. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of faith, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Voltaire's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Voltaire. (n.d.). If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0339

MLA: Voltaire. “If God did not exist, it would be….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0339.

Chicago: Voltaire. “If God did not exist, it would be….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0339.

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. Men must tolerate one another.
  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 faith

  1. Faith seeking understanding.
  2. Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.
  3. Certainty is not attained by imitation, but by tasting (direct experience).
  4. Truth does not contradict truth; rather it agrees with it and bears witness to it.
  5. I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand.

Browse the faith theme