Voltaire: biography, works and phrases

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Voltaire he was an outstanding philosopher, historian and thinker of the French Enlightenment, in addition to having developed works as a playwright, poet and essayist.

Biography

François Marie Arouet, better known by the pseudonym Voltaire, was born in Paris on November 21, 1694. Descended from an aristocratic family, Voltaire received a good education, being a very diligent student. He studied languages ​​(Latin and Greek), dialectics and theology at the Jesuit College "College Louis-le-Grand", in Paris.

Together with Rousseau (1712-1778) and Montesquieu (1689-1755), Voltaire was one of the most important thinkers of the Enlightenment French, cultural and intellectual movement of the 18th century European elite that was based on reason.

Voltaire was a defender of science, of progress, at the same time he tolerated difference and defended, above all, freedom of expression.

He even fought absolutism and criticized the aristocracy and power of the Catholic Church. According to him "The first law of nature is tolerance; since we all have a lot of mistakes and weaknesses.”

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In face of this, the philosopher was a cultural agitator and popularizer of his ideas and, when publishing mocking verses about the rulers, he was imprisoned in the Bastille (1717-1718). It is at this point that he adopts the pseudonym Voltaire.

Always with a controversial spirit, he was arrested again and later had to go into exile during the years 1726-1728, in England.

He had many novels, among which stand out: Olympe Runoyer, Susanne de Livry Emile de Bretiul (Marquise de Chatelet). He died in his hometown, on May 30, 1778, the same year he was initiated a Freemason.

Meet more Enlightenment Philosophers: Montesquieu, Rousseau and Adam Smith.

Construction

Voltaire was a prolific writer, author of approximately 70 works, including several essays, novels, poems, plays and theoretical works:

  • Oedipus (1718)
  • League Poem (1723)
  • The Henridad (1728)
  • History of Charles XII (1730)
  • Brutus (1730)
  • Epistle to Uranium (1733)
  • Philosophical Letters (1734)
  • Treatise on Metaphysics (1736)
  • The Prodigal Infant (1736)
  • Elements of Newton's Philosophy (1738)
  • Zulim (1740)
  • Tancredo (1760)
  • Treatise on Tolerance (1763)
  • Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
  • Short Tour (1766)
  • The Naive (1767)
  • The Princess of Babylon (1768)
  • Irene (1778)
  • Agathocle (1779)

Sentences

  • I may not agree with any of the words you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say them.
  • A collection of thoughts is a moral pharmacy where remedies for all ailments are found.
  • If man is born free, he must govern himself; if he has tyrants he must dethrone them.”
  • We must judge a man more by his questions than by his answers..”
  • Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and sentimental souls.”
  • Men make mistakes, great men confess they made mistakes.”
  • Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, addiction and need.”
  • If God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”

Read too

  • Enlightenment Philosophers
  • Political Philosophy
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