Life & Wisdom Quote by Voltaire

Voltaire’s line cuts like a letter opener: polished, civilized, and meant to draw blood. “The infinitely little” sounds mathematical, almost tender, until you feel the contempt baked into it. He isn’t describing smallness as innocence or humility. He’s pointing at people and institutions that are petty in intellect, scope, or moral imagination, yet swollen with self-importance. The joke is engineered in the symmetry: “infinitely” repeated turns pride into an absurd ratio problem, as if vanity can expand without limit even when the person doesn’t.

The intent is less psychological than political. Voltaire wrote in a world where prestige was often detached from merit: hereditary rank, clerical authority, bureaucratic self-regard. His work repeatedly targets the kind of power that can’t tolerate scrutiny because it’s propped up by ceremony rather than competence. The “infinitely little” are the ones who confuse their position for their value, then defend that confusion with righteous indignation. Pride becomes a weapon used by the unimpressive to demand deference.

Subtext: contempt is contagious. Voltaire isn’t only mocking the vain; he’s warning how vanity scales. A culture can be run by small minds if those minds are protected by systems that reward certainty over curiosity and status over thought. That’s why the line still lands: it describes the modern ecology of public life, where microscopic achievements can be inflated into brands, and minor authority becomes a license for major arrogance. Voltaire’s wit works because it flatters no one, least of all the reader.