Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth21 November 1694
CityParis, France
CountryFrance
men anvils france
In France every man is either an anvil or a hammer; he is a beater or must be beaten.
praise stills antiquity
Antiquity is full of the praises of another antiquity still more remote.
brother art light
All the arts are brothers; each one is a light to the others.
order tears absurd
The supposed right of intolerance is absurd and barbaric. It is the right of the tiger; nay, it is far worse, for tigers do but tear in order to have food, while we rend each other for paragraphs.
art feet progress
We have our arts, the ancients had theirs... We cannot raise obelisks a hundred feet high in a single piece, but our meridians are more exact.
art writing forgotten
You can never correct your work well until you have forgotten it.
book reading literature
All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.
courage bravery doe
He who dies before many witnesses always does so with courage.
men animal progress
The policy of man consists, at first, in endeavoring to arrive at a state equal to that of animals, whom nature has furnished with food, clothing, and shelter.
religion affair courses
Since the whole affair had become one of religion, the vanquished were of course exterminated.
sins-not genius sin
Feeble verses are those which sin not against rules, but against genius.
torment greater offenders
The more estimable the offender, the greater the torment.
medicine drug body
A physician is one who pours drugs of which he knows little into a body of which he knows less.
music animal class
The harmony of a concert, to which you listen with delight, must have on certain classes of minute animals the effect of terrible thunder; perhaps it kills them.