Fifty sayings of Voltaire: It is difficult to free fools from the chains they worship!

When in 1694 a healthy boy was born in the family of a lawyer in Paris, no one believed that one of the greatest geniuses that history has known had been born. From prison, to discussions among old books to imperial glitters, this would be the 83-year-old life of François-Marie Arouet, who the whole world today knows by the name of Voltaire (Volter).

Voltaire is the main representative of the Enlightenment, writer, historian, philosopher outside of conventional philosophy, known for satire, criticism of religion as an institution, supporter of religious tolerance and for the separation of church and state, writer with many talents, producing works in almost any literary form: drama, poetry, novel, essay, historical and scientific work. He wrote more than 20 thousand letters and over two thousand books and pamphlets.

He was an outspoken defender of freedom of expression, despite the consequences of the laws and strict censorship of the time. For his satirical writings, he was often sentenced to imprisonment or exile. Voltaire was a harsh critic of religious tradition, which inhibits individual freedom of belief - but he did not say that he was against the idea of ​​a supreme being.

Voltaire reasons that the existence of God is not a matter of faith, but of reason, and that all men are brothers, while they are the same creatures from the same God.

Orphaned by his mother at the age of seven, he lived an adolescence and youth under the iron tutelage of his father. For some time he also studied jurisprudence, but soon he was distinguished for his writings in the press of the time and for ironic, incisive debates, full of culture and courage in an environment that was dominated by the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV. Very soon this attitude would cost him first prison, exile on the borders of France and then crossing to England.

Voltaire's "English period" (1626-1628) left deep impressions on the future encyclopedist. After returning to the old continent for some time, his soul found peace in the many trips to Holland or Prussia, but it seems that the greatest event of his life at that time was his love affair with Emilie du Chatelet. It was in her house, where there were over 21,000 books, that he began to write with an unprecedented productivity.

In 1746, he made some sort of peace with the royal court by being appointed historian to the French Academy. The peace did not last long. Emilie left him for another, and he decided, as a half-revenge, not only to marry his niece, but also to be placed as chamberlain at the court of Kaiser Frederick I of Prussia in Berlin.

Determined in his ideas, against any compromise, he also leaves Berlin to lead a private life in Switzerland. Already old and sick, he returned to Paris, received with great cheers in 1778. He had lived a full 28 years in exile. He died a few months after his return. The Church refused to bury in its holy places what it considered a heretic. On the verge of death, he had shouted to the priest, who was performing the last services, mentioning Jesus Christ: "For God's sake, don't mention these names to me now?!" But, nevertheless, in 1791, after the Revolution, he was magnificently buried in the Panthéon, where the most legendary figures of France rest.

The fifty quotes selected by "American Eye" are as follows:

1. I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!

2. The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to continue the path with those who do not have it!

3. There are people who do not think deeper than a fact!

4. Anyone who has the power to make you believe nonsense has the power to make you accept injustice!

5. Anything too useless to say is sung!

6. Through appreciation, we make the excellence of others our property!

7. Governments must have both shepherds and butchers!

8. When it comes to money, everyone has the same religion!

9. Prejudices are what fools use for reason!

10. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him!

11. Everyone is guilty of all the good things he has not done!

12. Philosophy, only philosophy, this sister of religion has removed the weapons from superstition's bloody hands for a long time, and now that the poison has come out, the human mind is amazed at the holes where fanaticism had pierced!

13. Tolerance has never provoked a civil war, but intolerance has covered the earth with blood!

14. Judge a man more by the questions than by his answers!

15. God gave us the gift of life; it's up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well!

16. Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is great in others ours too!

17. Anyone who has the power to make you believe in absurdities has the power to make you commit injustice!

18. In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another!

19. I have never prayed to God, except for one very brief one: "Lord, make my enemies laugh." And God heard me!

20. It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished, unless they kill in great numbers and under the sound of trumpets!

21. Life is thickly planted with thorns, and I know no other means than to quickly pass through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater their power to harm us!

22. God is a comedian, playing to an audience that is too scared to laugh!

23. Of all religions, Christianity should certainly inspire the greatest tolerance, but so far Christians have been the most intolerant of all people!

24. It is difficult to free fools from the chains they worship!

25. All the reasonings of men are not as valuable as a feeling of women!

26. What is tolerance? It is a consequence of humanity. We are all shaped by weakness and error; let us all mutually forgive each other's folly – this is the first law of nature!

27. I hate women because they always know where things are!

28. The man who decides to suddenly surprise his wife has often surprised himself!

29. It is dangerous to be right in matters in which the authorities of the time are wrong!

30. The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all they can pay, for the good of another third!

31. It is not enough to see and recognize the beauty of a work. We must feel it and be touched by it!

32. To be successful in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be kind!

33. It is better to risk the salvation of a guilty man than to condemn an ​​innocent man!

34. Tyrants always have some light shades of virtue; they uphold the laws before they destroy them!

35. Superstition is to religion what Astrology is to astronomy, crazy daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have long dominated the earth!

36. Doubt is not a pleasant state, but certainty is absurd!

37. Chance is a word empty of meaning, nothing can exist without a cause!

38. Never argue at the dinner table, because the one who is not hungry always finds the best argument!

39. Originality is nothing but wise imitation. The most original writers have borrowed from each other!

40. For the living we owe respect, but for the dead we owe only the truth!

41. We never live, we are always waiting to live!

42. The divorce is probably of the same date as the marriage. I believe, however, that the marriage is a few weeks older!

43. It is a difficult man who is only fair, and sad he who is only wise!

44. History is only the record of crimes and disasters!

45. History should be written as philosophy!

46. ​​I know many books which have annoyed their readers, but I know of no book which has really done any harm!

47. There are truths which are not for all people, nor for all times!

48. To believe in God is impossible, not to believe in Him is absurd!

49. I have lived eighty years of life and I know nothing about it, except to surrender and say that butterflies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sadness!

50. It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong!