Voltaire
Complete works (1880) : https://archive.org/details/oeuvresco...
In 1694, Age of Enlightenment leader Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. Jesuit-educated, he began writing clever verses by the age of 12. He launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which Francois adopted the pen name Voltaire, he was released after agreeing to move to London. There he wrote Lettres philosophiques (1733), which galvanized French reform. The book also satirized the religious teachings of Rene Descartes and Blaise Pascal, including Pascal's famed "wager" on God. Voltaire wrote: "The interest I have in believing a thing is not a proof of the existence of that thing." Voltaire's French publisher was sent to the Bastille and Voltaire had to escape from Paris again, as judges sentenced the book to be "torn and burned in the Palace." Voltaire spent a calm 16 years with his deistic mistress, Madame du Chatelet, in Lorraine. He met the 27 year old married mother when he was 39. In his memoirs, he wrote: "I found, in 1733, a young woman who thought as I did, and decided to spend several years in the country, cultivating her mind." He dedicated Traite de metaphysique to her. In it the Deist candidly rejected immortality and questioned belief in God. It was not published until the 1780s. Voltaire continued writing amusing but meaty philosophical plays and histories. After the earthquake that leveled Lisbon in 1755, in which 15,000 people perished and another 15,000 were wounded, Voltaire wrote Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (Poem on the Lisbon Disaster): "But how conceive a God supremely good/ Who heaps his favours on the sons he loves,/ Yet scatters evil with as large a hand?"
Voltaire purchased a chateau in Geneva, where, among other works, he wrote Candide (1759). To avoid Calvinist persecution, Voltaire moved across the border to Ferney, where the wealthy writer lived for 18 years until his death. Voltaire began to openly challenge Christianity, calling it "the infamous thing." He wrote Frederick the Great: "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." Voltaire ended every letter to friends with "Ecrasez l'infame" (crush the infamy — the Christian religion). His pamphlet, The Sermon on the Fifty (1762) went after transubstantiation, miracles, biblical contradictions, the Jewish religion, and the Christian God. Voltaire wrote that a true god "surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough," or inspired "books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror." He also published excerpts of Testament of the Abbe Meslier, by an atheist priest, in Holland, which advanced the Enlightenment. Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary was published in 1764 without his name. Although the first edition immediately sold out, Geneva officials, followed by Dutch and Parisian, had the books burned. It was published in 1769 as two large volumes. Voltaire campaigned fiercely against civil atrocities in the name of religion, writing pamphlets and commentaries about the barbaric execution of a Huguenot trader, who was first broken at the wheel, then burned at the stake, in 1762. Voltaire's campaign for justice and restitution ended with a posthumous retrial in 1765, during which 40 Parisian judges declared the defendant innocent. Voltaire urgently tried to save the life of Chevalier de la Barre, a 19 year old sentenced to death for blasphemy for failing to remove his hat during a religious procession. In 1766, Chevalier was beheaded after being tortured, then his body was burned, along with a copy of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. Voltaire's statue at the Pantheon was melted down during Nazi occupation. D. 1778.
Voltaire (1694-1778), pseudónimo de François-
“L'homme n'est fait pas pour travailler, la preuve c'est que cela le fatigue.”
“What we find in books is like the fire in our hearths. We fetch it from our neighbors, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.”
“I have received your new book against the human race, and thank you for it. Never was such a cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid. One longs, in reading your book, to walk on all fours. But as I have lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel unhappily the impossibility of resuming it. Nor can I embark in search of the savages of Canada, because the maladies to which I am condemned render a European surgeon necessary to me; because war is going on in those regions; and because the example of our actions has made the savages nearly as bad as ourselves. [in response to Rousseau's "The Social Contract"]”
“self-esteem is a balloon filled with wind, from which great tempests surge when it is pricked”
“It is best one should quote what one doesn't understand at all in the language one knows the least”
“What is the verdict of the vastest mind?Silence: the book of fate is closed to us.Man is a stranger to his own research;He knows not whence he comes, nor whither goes.Tormented atoms in a bed of mud,Devoured by death, a mockery of fate.But thinking atoms, whose far-seeing eyes,Guided by thought, have measured the faint stars,Our being mingles with the infinite;Ourselves we never see, or come to know.”
“Clearly,” I said, “we should choose not to have good sense, if that good sense contributes to our misery.” Everyone agreed with me, and yet I found no one who wanted to accept the bargain of becoming ignorant in order to become content. From this I concluded that though we greatly value happiness, we place even greater value on reason.But yet, upon reflection, it seems that to prefer reason to happiness is to be quite insane.”
“Non che il suicidio sia sempre follia. Ma in genere non è in un eccesso di ragione che ci si ammazza.”
“The supper was like most Parisian suppers: silence at first, then a burst of unintelligible chatter, then witticisms that were mostly vapid, false rumors, bad reasonings, a little politics and a great deal of slander; they even spoke about new books.”
“Por isso, vos aconselho a que vos distraiais, convidai cada passageiro a contar a sua história; mas se encontrar um só que nunca tenha amaldiçoado a vida e que nunca tenha dito para si mesmo que era o mais infeliz dos homens, deitem-me ao mar de cabeça para baixo!”
“The shrieks were coming from two quite naked girls, who were pursued by a pair of apes snapping at their bottoms. [...] So he now raises his double-barrelled Spanish rifle, fires and kills both apes. 'God be praised, my dear Calambo! I have delivered these two poor creatures from grave peril; if it was a sin to kill an Inquisitor and a Jesuit, I have made ample amends by saving the lives of two girls [...]'He was about to continue, but words failed him when he saw the two girls throw their arms lovingly around the two apes and collapse in tears over their corpses, filling the air with the most pitiful lamentations. 'I was not expecting quite so much tenderness of heart,' he said at last to Cacambo, who replied: 'You've excelled yourself this time, Master; you have just despatched the two lovers of these young ladies.' '-Their lovers! Is it possible? You're making fun of me, Cacambo; how could anyone believe in such a thing?' - 'My dear Master,' retorted Cacambo, 'you are always astounished by everything; why do you find it so strange that in some countries it is apes who enjoy the favours of young ladies? After all, they are one-quarter human, just as I am one-quarter Spanish.”
“He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend- provided of course he really is dead.”
“All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.”
“Ne obraćam se stoga više ljudima; obraćam se tebi, Bože svih bića, svih svjetova i svih vremena: ako je slabašnim stvorenjima, izgubljenim u beskraju, i nevidljivima za ostale u svemiru, dopušteno da od tebe nešto zatraže, od tebe koji si dao sve, od tebe čije su odluke postojane i vječne, udostoji se milostivo suditi o greškama što pripadaju našoj prirodi; neka te greške ne budu naša pokora. Nisi nam dao srce da se mrzimo i ruke da se ubijamo; učini da pomognemo jedni drugima podnositi teret mučnog i prolaznog života; neka neznatne razlike u odjeći kojom pokrivamo naša slaba tijela, među svim našim nedostatnim jezicima, među svim našim smiješnim običajima, među svim našim nesavršenim zakonima, među svim našim bezumnim shvaćanjima, među svim našim prilikama tako ujednačenim u našim očima i tako jednakim pred tobom; neka sve te sitne nijanse po kojima se razlikuju atomi nazvani ljudima ne budu povodi za mržnju i za progone; neka oni koji pale voštanice usred bijela dana da bi te slavili podnose one kojima je dovoljna svjetlost tvog sunca; neka oni koji svoje haljine prekrivaju bijelom tkaninom da bi iskazali ljubav prema tebi ne preziru one koji kazuju to isto pod mantijom od crne vune; neka bude svejedno obraća li ti se netko riječima nekog starog jezika ili na nekom novijem narječju; neka oni čija je odjeća obojena crveno ili ljubičasto, koji vladaju na malom komadiću jedne male gomile blata na ovome svijetu, i koji posjeduju nekoliko zaobljenih komadića izvjesne kovine, bez oholosti uživaju u onome što nazivaju veličinom i bogatstvom, i neka ih ostali gledaju bez zavisti; jer ti znaš da u tim ispraznostima nema ničeg na čemu bi trebalo zavidjeti i ničega zbog čega bi se trebalo dičiti.Kad bi se svi ljudi mogli prisjetiti da su braća! Neka zamrze tiraniju nad dušama kao što se gnušaju pljačke koja silom otima plodove rada i mirne umješnosti! Ako su nevolje rata neizbježne, ne mrzimo se, ne razdirimo se barem u miru, i koristimo trenutak svog postojanja da blagoslovimo, na tisuću različitih jezika istovremeno, od Sijama do Kalifornije, tvojom dobrotom koja nam je darovala taj trenutak.”
“If there’s life on other planets, then the earth is the Universe’s insane asylum.”
“All comes out even at the end of the day, and all comes out still more even when all the days are over.”
“Only your friends steal your books.”
“Use, do not abuse; the wise man arrange things so. I flee Epictetus and Petronius alike. Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”
“Vous craignez les livres comme certaines bourgades ont craint les violons. Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.”
“We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one”
“What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?”
“Los Padres son dueños de todo y la gente no posée nada; es la obra maestra de la razón y la justicia. Yo no encuentro nada tan extraordinario como los Padres, que aquí luchan contra el rey de España y el de Portugal, y que allí, en Europa, confiesan a esos mismos reyes; que aquí matan españoles, y que en Madrid los envían al cielo: es algo portentoso”
“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”
“on doit des égards aux vivants, on ne doit aux morts que la vérité.”
“He showed, in a few words, that it is not sufficient to throw together a few incidents that are to be met with in every romance, and that to dazzle the spectator the thought should be new, without being farfetched; frequently sublime, but always natural; the author should have a thorough knowledge of the human heart and make it speak properly; he should be a complete poet, without showing an affectation of it in any of the characters of his piece; he should be a perfect master of his language, speak it with all its pruity and with the utmost harmony, and yet so as not to make the sense a slave to the rhyme. Whoever, added he, neglects any one of these rules, though he may write two or three tragedies with tolerable success, will never be reckoned in the number of good authors.”
“Bí mật để biến thành một kẻ buồn chán... là cái gì cũng kể.”
“Hãy yêu sự thật, nhưng hãy tha thứ cho lầm lỗi.”
“Nước mắt là ngôn ngữ câm lặng của đau buồn.”
“Hãy cho chúng tôi được đọc và nhảy múa; hai thứ thú tiêu khiển này sẽ không bao giờ gây ra bất cứ thiệt hại nào cho thế giới cả.”
“Tears are the silent language of grief”
“I know of only one serious thing on this earth, the growing of grapes.”
“Il faut cultiver notre jardin.”
“It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.”
“I hate women because they always know where things are.”
“Jos tämä on paras mahdollinen maailma, millaisia sitten ovatkaan muut?”
“Men argue. Nature acts.”
“Men employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”
“Non più dunque agli uomini mi rivolgo, ma a te Dio di tutti gli esseri, di tutti i mondi e di tutti i tempi. Se è permesso a deboli creature perdute nell’immensità e impercettibili al resto dell’universo osar domandare qualcosa a te, a te che hai dato tutto, a te i cui decreti sono immutabili quanto eterni, degnati di guardar con misericordia gli errori legati alla nostra natura. Che questi errori non generino le nostre sventure. Tu non ci hai dato un cuore perché noi ci odiassimo, né delle mani perché ci scannassimo. Fa che ci aiutiamo l’un l’altro a sopportare il fardello d’una esistenza penosa e passeggera. Che le piccole diversità tra i vestiti che coprono i nostri deboli corpi, tra tutte le nostre lingue insufficienti, tra tutti i nostri usi ridicoli, tra tutte le nostre leggi imperfette, tra tutte le nostre opinioni insensate, tra tutte le nostre condizioni ai nostri occhi così diverse l’una dall’altra, e così uguali davanti a te; che tutte le piccole sfumature che distinguono questi atomi chiamati uomini non siano segnali di odio e di persecuzione; che coloro i quali accendono ceri in pieno mezzogiorno per celebrarti sopportino coloro che si accontentano della luce del tuo sole; che coloro i quali coprono la veste loro di una tela bianca per dire che bisogna amarti non detestino coloro che dicono la stessa cosa portando un mantello di lana nera;che sia uguale adorarti in un gergo proveniente da una lingua morta, o in un gergo più nuovo; che coloro il cui abito è tinto di rosso o di violetto, che dominano su una piccola parte di un piccolo mucchio di fango di questo mondo e che posseggono alcuni frammenti arrotondati di un certo metallo, godano senza orgoglio di ciò che essi chiamano grandezza e ricchezza, e che gli altri guardino a costoro senza invidia;perché tu sai che nulla vi è in queste cose vane, né che sia da invidiare né che possa inorgoglire. Possano tutti gli uomini ricordarsi che sono fratelli! Che essi abbiano in orrore la tirannide esercitata sugli animi, così come esecrano il brigantaggio che strappa con la forza il frutto del lavoro e dell’industria pacifica! Se i flagelli della guerra sono inevitabili, non odiamoci però, non laceriamoci a vicenda quando regna la pace e impieghiamo l’istante della nostra esistenza per benedire ugualmente, in mille lingue diverse, dal Siam sino alla California, la tua bontà che questo istante ci ha dato”
“The only reward to be expected from the cultivation of literature is contempt if one fails and and hatred if one succeeds.”
“I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.”
“lo perfecto es enemigo de lo bueno”
“All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.”
“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us”
“When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?”
“Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.”
“Come! you presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure.”
“to find why this sheep's wool was red; and the prize was awarded to a learned man of the North, who demonstrated by A plus B minus C divided by Z, that the sheep must be red, and die of the rot.”
“God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.”
“Why should you think it so strange that in some countries there are monkeys which insinuates themselves into the good graces of the ladies; they are a fourth part human, as I am a fourth part Spaniard.”
“I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.”