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Who really said it

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense

Not Voltaire — actually Baron d'Holbach Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach 1723–1789 · French-German Enlightenment philosopher & atheist
Disputed Free to reuse

This is not Voltaire. The epigram is a loose English rendering of a line by Baron d’Holbach in his satirical Théologie portative, ou Dictionnaire abrégé de la religion chrétienne (1768), under the entry Folie: “Rien n’est plus contraire à la Religion et au Clergé qu’une tête sensée et raisonnable” — literally “a sensible and reasonable mind,” not “reason and common sense.” Wikiquote files the line among Voltaire’s misattributed quotations ↗.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense” Baron d'Holbach, Théologie portative (1768), entry "Folie" — often misattributed to Voltaire

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Voltaire. Use the credit shown above instead.

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Provenance

The real source: d’Holbach’s satirical dictionary

Work
Théologie portative, ou Dictionnaire abrégé de la religion chrétienne
Author
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (published pseudonymously as “abbé Bernier”)
First published
1768 · entry “Folie”
Translation
Popular English is an anonymous loose rendering; d’Holbach’s French reads “une tête sensée et raisonnable” (a sensible and reasonable mind)

Folie. Les bons Chrétiens se glorifient de la folie de la Croix. Rien n’est plus contraire à la Religion et au Clergé qu’une tête sensée et raisonnable ; elle n’est jamais bien propre à la foi, ni assez susceptible de ferveur ou de zèle.

From the entry “Folie” (Folly). Literally: “Nothing is more contrary to Religion and the Clergy than a sensible and reasonable mind; it is never well suited to faith, nor susceptible enough to fervour or zeal.” The circulating English swaps “a sensible and reasonable mind” for “reason and common sense.”

Théologie portative (1768), full text — Les Classiques des sciences sociales

How we traced it

Public domain

The source work, d’Holbach’s Théologie portative, was first published in 1768 and is long in the public domain; the circulating English is a loose modern paraphrase of that public-domain French text, carrying no separate protected translation.

Fact-check

Why it’s pinned on Voltaire

The quip is anticlerical, epigrammatic and 18th-century French — a perfect fit for Voltaire’s reputation. But it belongs to his contemporary Baron d’Holbach, and even the familiar English wording departs from what d’Holbach actually wrote.

Voltaire Misattributed

Quote sites, image memes and databases print the line under Voltaire with no citation. Wikiquote places it in its Voltaire Misattributed section ↗ and points instead to d’Holbach. Ironically, Voltaire publicly opposed d’Holbach’s atheism (in the article “Dieu” of his own Dictionnaire philosophique).

Anonymous English paraphrase Reworded

d’Holbach wrote “une tête sensée et raisonnable” — “a sensible and reasonable mind” — which the popular English compresses into “reason and common sense,” confirmable in the 1768 text ↗.

The real author is Baron d’Holbach, in Théologie portative (1768), entry “Folie” — and the English is a loose paraphrase of his French, per Wikiquote ↗.

Context

An Enlightenment barb, mis-signed

d’Holbach’s Théologie portative is a mock “pocket theology” — a dictionary that defines Christian terms with deadpan irony to expose what he saw as their absurdity. Under “Folie” (Folly) he needles the celebrated “folly of the Cross,” arguing that a clear, rational mind is precisely what faith and clergy cannot abide.

Because d’Holbach published such works anonymously to dodge censorship, his sharpest lines circulated unsigned — easy to later re-file under the era’s most famous freethinker. The mislabeling is doubly ironic: Voltaire, a deist, actually took up his pen against d’Holbach’s outright atheism.

A rational mind, d’Holbach jokes, is the last thing religion and the clergy can tolerate.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Voltaire — Misattributed (Wikiquote)en.wikiquote.org

Lists the line among Voltaire misattributions and credits d’Holbach, Théologie portative (1768), “Folie.”
Théologie portative (1768) — full textclassiques.uqam.ca

Primary source: the entry “Folie” containing d’Holbach’s original French sentence.
Baron d'Holbach — biography (Voltaire Foundation, Oxford)voltaire.ox.ac.uk

Scholarly biography of d’Holbach and his clandestine anticlerical works.
Paul-Henri d'Holbach (Encyclopædia Britannica)britannica.com

Overview of d’Holbach’s materialist, atheist philosophy and place in the Enlightenment.
Baron d'Holbach (Wikipedia)en.wikipedia.org

Life, works, and the salon; notes that Voltaire opposed d’Holbach’s atheism.
The quote credited to Voltaire (BuboQuote)buboquote.com

Example of the widespread, sourceless attribution to Voltaire.

The true author

About Baron d’Holbach

Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach

1723–1789 · French-German Enlightenment philosopher & atheist

Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (1723–1789) was a German-born, French-naturalized philosopher whose Paris salon hosted Diderot, Hume, Adam Smith and Benjamin Franklin. A contributor to the Encyclopédie, he became the most uncompromising atheist and materialist of the Enlightenment, author of the Système de la nature (1770). He published his anticlerical works — including the satirical Théologie portative — anonymously or under borrowed names to evade censorship, which is partly why his sharpest lines drift to more famous signatures like Voltaire’s.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach, Théologie portative, ou Dictionnaire abrégé de la religion chrétienne (1768), s.v. “Folie”: “Rien n’est plus contraire à la Religion et au Clergé qu’une tête sensée et raisonnable.”

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/nothing-can-be-more-contrary-to-religion-and-the-clergy

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