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
parent enemy source
Theological religion is the source of all imaginable follies and disturbances. It is the parent of fanaticism and civil discord; it is the enemy of mankind.
music impossible translate
It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.
god religious atheist
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
funny triumph reason
The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.
men knows
The more a man knows, the less he talks.
fate digestion prime
The fate of a nation has often depended upon the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.
funny use-it-or-lose-it fool
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
motivational inspiration adversity
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us
wisdom lonely men
Virtuous men alone possess friends.
lying men eulogy
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
atheist religion atheism
Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.
shining firsts
He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.
might serious should
All pleasantry should be short; and it might even be as well were the serious short also.
art noble optics
Descartes constructed as noble a road of science, from the point at which he found geometry to that to which he carried it, as Newton himself did after him. ... He carried this spirit of geometry and invention into optics, which under him became a completely new art.