"Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels"
About this Quote
Voltaire skewers conflict by refusing to flatter either camp. “Weakness on both sides” is a cold diagnosis, not a moral pep talk: quarrels persist less because one party is heroic and the other villainous than because both are insecure, overextended, or trapped by pride. The line’s bite comes from its faux-proverbial tone - “as we know” - a little wink that treats human belligerence as depressingly routine. He’s not inviting debate; he’s filing a report on the species.
The subtext is classic Voltairean anticlerical and anti-absolutist skepticism about grand banners. “Motto” is the key insult. A motto is what you put on a flag to dress up your cause; Voltaire suggests the real banner behind most disputes is fragility: thin skins, shaky evidence, brittle authority, the need to save face. By making weakness symmetrical, he punctures the self-image that quarrels rely on: each side’s conviction that it fights from strength, virtue, or destiny.
Context matters: Voltaire lived through Europe’s age of dynastic wars, religious vendettas, and salon polemics where reputations were currency and persecution was policy. His era marketed violence and censorship as righteousness and order. This sentence is a compact piece of Enlightenment sabotage. It implies that certainty is often compensation, outrage is often camouflage, and the louder the quarrel, the less secure the foundations beneath it. The wit is not decorative; it’s strategic. If both sides are weak, the audience is freed - or forced - to judge the argument on reason rather than allegiance.
The subtext is classic Voltairean anticlerical and anti-absolutist skepticism about grand banners. “Motto” is the key insult. A motto is what you put on a flag to dress up your cause; Voltaire suggests the real banner behind most disputes is fragility: thin skins, shaky evidence, brittle authority, the need to save face. By making weakness symmetrical, he punctures the self-image that quarrels rely on: each side’s conviction that it fights from strength, virtue, or destiny.
Context matters: Voltaire lived through Europe’s age of dynastic wars, religious vendettas, and salon polemics where reputations were currency and persecution was policy. His era marketed violence and censorship as righteousness and order. This sentence is a compact piece of Enlightenment sabotage. It implies that certainty is often compensation, outrage is often camouflage, and the louder the quarrel, the less secure the foundations beneath it. The wit is not decorative; it’s strategic. If both sides are weak, the audience is freed - or forced - to judge the argument on reason rather than allegiance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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