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Voltaire

1694 - 1778

About the Author

Voltaire (1694-1778) was one of the leading figures of the French Enlightenment. He first made a name for himself as a poet and playwright before turning to political philosophy, history, religious criticism, and other literary activities.

In The Library:

• author: Candide, ou l’Optimisme (1759)
• author: An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1764)
• author: Toleration and Other Essays (1755)
• author: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols. (1901)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. I (Candide) (1759)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1) (1764)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IV (Philosophical Dictionary Part 2) (1764)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. V (Philosophical Dictionary Part 3) (1764)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VI (Philosophical Dictionary Part 4) (1764)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VII (Philosophical Dictionary Part 5) (1764)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VIII The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Mérope, Olympia, The Orphan of China, Brutus) and Part II (Mahomet, Amelia, Oedipus, Mariamne, Socrates). (1901)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IX The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Alzire, Orestes, Sémiramis, Catiline, Pandora) and Part II (The Scotch Woman, Nanine, The Prude, The Tatler). (1901)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems). (1901)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. XII (Age of Louis XIV) (1751)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. XIX (Philosophical Letters) (1733)
• author: The Works of Voltaire, Vol. XXI (A Biographical Critique of Voltaire by John Morely) (1872)

Quotations:

• Voltaire on the Benefits which Trade and Economic Abundance bring to People living in the Present Age (1736) (13 September, 2004)
• Voltaire notes that where Commerce and Toleration predominate, a Multiplicity of Faiths can live together in Peace and Happiness (1764) (25 October, 2004)
• Voltaire lampooned the excessively optimistic Leibnitzian philosophers in his philosophic tale Candide by exposing his characters to one disaster after another, like a tsunami in Lisbon, to show that this was not “the best of all possible worlds” (1759) (3 January, 2005)
• Voltaire argued that religious intolerance was against the law of nature and was worse than the “right of the tiger” (1763) (13 March, 2006)
• Voltaire in Candide says that “tending one’s own garden” is not only a private activity but also productive (1759) (8 June, 2009)
• Voltaire laments the destruction of Lisbon in an earthquake and criticises the philosophers who thought that “all’s well with the world” and the religious who thought it was “God’s will” (1755) (19 January, 2010)