Voltaire

trivia

famous last word

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tyrant

is the king of nincompoops, the prince of the superficial, the anti-artist, the spokesman of janitresses, the Father Gigone of the editors of Siecle.

I grow bored in France — and the main reason is that everybody here resembles Voltaire…the king of nincompoops, the prince of the superficial, the anti-artist, the spokesman of janitresses, the Father Gigone of the editors of Siecle.

carried on the antiseptic skepticism of Montaigne, and the healthy earthy humor of Rabelais, who fought superstition and corruption more savagely than Luther or Erasmus, Calvin or Knox or Melanchthon; and who helped to make the powder with which Mirabeau and Marat, Danton and Robespierre blew up the Old Regime.

He carried on the antiseptic scepticism of Montaigne, and the healthy earthy humor of Rabelais; he fought superstition and corruption more savagely and effectively than Luther or Erasmus, Calvin or Knox or Melanchthon; he helped to make the powder with which Mirabeau and Marat, Danton and Robespierre blew up the Old Regime…

was, for his country, both Renaissance and Reformation, and half the Revolution.

Italy had a Renaissance, and Germany had a Reformation, but France had Voltaire; he was for his country both Renaissance and Reformation, and half the Revolution.

is the originator of the word 'optimism', which he coined in mockery of Leibniz, who believed he had demonstrated that we live in the best of possible worlds.

Not a day goes by without our using the word optimism, coined by Voltaire against Leibniz, who had demonstrated (in spite of the Ecclesiastes and with the approval of the Church) that we live in the best of possible worlds. Voltaire, very reasonably, denied that exorbitant opinion... Leibniz could have replied that a world which has given us Voltaire has some right to be considered the best.

is a man who to name is to characterize the whole eighteenth century.

To name Voltaire is to characterize the whole eighteenth century.

is the cleverest of all past and present men; but a great man is something more, and this he surely was not.

Voltaire was the cleverest of all past and present men; but a great man is something more, and this he surely was not.

Voltaire, n.Trivia

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