Title page from The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VI (Philosophical Dictionary Part 4)

Part of: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols. The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VI (Philosophical Dictionary Part 4)

Volume 4 of the Philosophical Dictionary with entries from “Joseph” to the “Privileges.” The Philosophical Dictionary* first appeared in 1764 in a “pocket edition” designed to be carried about one’s person. It consists of a series of short essays on a variety of topics all of which are tied together as examples of Voltaire’s withering criticism of “the infamous thing” - examples of tyranny and persecution by a privileged orthodoxy in Church and State of those individuals who disagree.

Key Quotes

Religion & Toleration

Enter into the Royal Exchange of London, a place more respectable than many courts, in which deputies from all nations assemble for the advantage of mankind. There the Jew, the Mahometan, and the Christian bargain with one another as if they were of the same religion, and bestow the name of infidel…