philosophybits:

“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly — that is the first law of nature.”

— Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique

philosophyquotes:

“If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.”

— Voltaire

by Voltaire

What’s it about?

It’s a comedy published in 1759 about a French idiot convinced that everything is amazing, despite the fact that his life takes an increasingly unfortunate series of turns. Although if you’ve read Game of Thrones and you can’t handle a character having the worst luck imaginable, you should present yourself to the relevant authorities at first light.  

That doesn’t sound funny. That sounds sad.

It’s not sad at all. It was written specifically as a response to an assertion by German scientist and philosopher, Gottfried Leibniz, that despite all the horrible stuff, we must necessarily be living in “the best of all possible worlds”, because God wouldn’t allow anything else.

That might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

Voltaire agrees. This book is basically a short novel version of “this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard”. 

What should I say to make people think I’ve read it?

[Any reference to “Pococurante” or doing something “to encourage the others”.]

What should I avoid saying when trying to convince people I’ve read it?

“Things could be worse.”

Should I actually read it?

Yes. It’s very funny. Like not “funny for the time”. It’s just funny.

Voltaire, Notebooks

Voltaire

prussiansuggestions:

prussiansuggestions:

Just because a man canenjoyliberté de conscience et de verge, doesn’t mean he should have sexual relations with a donkey.

After a man in Brandenburg-Prussia was sentenced to death for engaging in inappropriate conduct with a female donkey, Frederick the Great personally annulled the sentence, allegedly (because you can’t quite trust Voltaire’s dramatic recounts of events) reasoning that in his lands one enjoys “liberté de conscience et de verge” /  “freedom of both conscience and penis” 

Voltaire in general just appeared rather willing to perhaps overstate things to suit the literary tastes of the French public, or else share any and all gossip he came across at court. The slightly dicey references to Frederick’s homosexual exploits to be found in his memoirs either fall into the category of artistic freedom, or we can conclude Voltaire really was willing to publish everyone’s private life for some publicity. Cue affronted German/Prussian writers then doing their utmost to emphasise Frederick’s complete and utter heterosexuality at every possible opportunity. 

prussiansuggestions:

Just because a man canenjoyliberté de conscience et de verge, doesn’t mean he should have sexual relations with a donkey.

After a man in Brandenburg-Prussia was sentenced to death for engaging in inappropriate conduct with a female donkey, Frederick the Great personally annulled the sentence, allegedly (because you can’t quite trust Voltaire’s dramatic recounts of events) reasoning that in his lands one enjoys “liberté de conscience et de verge” /  “freedom of both conscience and penis” 

Just because a man canenjoyliberté de conscience et de verge, doesn’t mean he should have sexual relations with a donkey.

È pericoloso avere ragione, quando il governo ha torto.

Voltaire

frederick-the-great:

I want to tell Greece what Voltaire told Catherine the Great: girl, if you’re sad about a man just find another man

tabellae-rex-in-sui:

tabellae-rex-in-sui:

Absolutely losing my mind over Voltaire’s titles listed on Mlle Corneille’s wedding contract jdbdhdjdj WHO let him do this???

“demoiselle Marie-Françoise Corneille […] demeurant actuellement au château de Ferney, pays de Gex, auprès de messire François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, chevalier, gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi, et de l’Académie française, seigneur de Ferney, Tournay, Régny, Chambézy et autres places”

Chevalier?? “Autres places”??? Hello???

Also “Gentleman of the King’s Chamber”? What king? Frederick? He gave up that title during their little divorce

tabellae-rex-in-sui:

Thinking about that letter where Fritz asks for advice on his poetry and that he wants to learn and Vs like “Here’s a list of critiques. Improving would need regular tutoring with me like two hours a day for 6 weeks or 2 months” and Fritz’ response is immediately just “So you’re promising to spend two months with me! Okay I think we should start now cuz I’m not busy rn. I know Émilie’s pregnant or something but I’m willing to pay her for your time away. Also poetry is more important than science”

And V just ignores it sjsnsksksk

FRITZ, FRITZ PLEASE

le-roi-des-bulgares:

(a series of letters from early 1759)

Fritz: Can you ask your doctor Tronchin to come treat my brother, I got money

Voltaire (to Tronchin) : lol who does he think he is! “money”, so degrading! don’t even respond, lemme tease him

V: No he can’t, he’s busy attending to the French royal house, tell your brother to come to him. by the way, you have no heart, no sympathy, you being a hero means nothing to me

F: *duly triggered, says some bitter stuff*

V: OMG I WAS HELPING YOU!! I was merely telling you what Tronchin said! And THIS is how you repay my KINDNESS????
p.s. don’t you know I love you, because you are the best of kings, in a way?

F: aw

tabellae-rex-in-sui:

That said, Saint Just had a formative experience reading Voltaire’s “Temple of Friendship” and then his article on Friendship in his Philosophical Dictionary. You can’t change my mind

#to be fair V’s writing on Friendship would blast anyone into the stratosphere #he’s all ‘Friendship was legislative and borderline religious for the greeks… #but our modern society is too greedy and corrupt to sustain true Friendship like the Band of Thebes :(… #also the goddess of friendship is waiting at the temple to unify two souls of true love and friendship :)’ #and it’s like ugh you’re so right. friendship IS a virtuous and sensitive marriage

and also subject to divorce :) :)

saint-jussy:

your-disobedient-servant:

what does that make the dozen of us pre-frev enlightenment folks?

oh yes Daddy Rousseau and Daddy Voltaire, estranged fathers of Frev

tabellae-rex-in-sui:

your-disobedient-servant:

edgysaintjust:

your-disobedient-servant:

edgysaintjust:

saint-jussy:

chromaenthusiast:

Your follower count is how many years the time machine is taking you back, where are you going?

@robespapier​ tell him he ends up getting buried with Rousseau in the Pantheon, together forever ❤

That would be hilarious since this Zozo would assume you mean Jean-Baptiste, he’d watch him die and think he won. Years later he finally quarrels with Jean-Jacques and begins to realize. 

JJ Rousseau was born in 1712 so at this point he’d be 14 years old (Voltaire would be 30) and Voltaire wouldn’t even know he exists. He’d definitely assume JB Rousseau, especially since he was one of the most well-known writers at that time. They might have even still been on reasonably good terms in 1724, I don’t remember exactly when their relationship went sour.

Fun fact! There is also a third less known Rousseau Voltaire pissed off at some point. And we know that cause JJ made a joke about it in a letter.

Was it the guy who trashed his play, or something like that?

Yeah, one story involves something going down in a theatre and given that Voltaire had an ego the size of a planet…possible lol. Though iirc another theory says it was a printer named Pierre Rousseau, which is imo equally plausible. 

(@tabellae-rex-in-sui do you remember?)

Yeah the one I remember the most is the theater incident, probably because it’s the funniest. But yeah, there’s also mentions of Pierre Rousseau the printer

So…it could be entirely possible that Voltaire mortally pissed off FOUR Rousseaus

edgysaintjust:

your-disobedient-servant:

edgysaintjust:

saint-jussy:

chromaenthusiast:

Your follower count is how many years the time machine is taking you back, where are you going?

@robespapier​ tell him he ends up getting buried with Rousseau in the Pantheon, together forever ❤

That would be hilarious since this Zozo would assume you mean Jean-Baptiste, he’d watch him die and think he won. Years later he finally quarrels with Jean-Jacques and begins to realize. 

JJ Rousseau was born in 1712 so at this point he’d be 14 years old (Voltaire would be 30) and Voltaire wouldn’t even know he exists. He’d definitely assume JB Rousseau, especially since he was one of the most well-known writers at that time. They might have even still been on reasonably good terms in 1724, I don’t remember exactly when their relationship went sour.

Fun fact! There is also a third less known Rousseau Voltaire pissed off at some point. And we know that cause JJ made a joke about it in a letter.

Was it the guy who trashed his play, or something like that?

Yeah, one story involves something going down in a theatre and given that Voltaire had an ego the size of a planet…possible lol. Though iirc another theory says it was a printer named Pierre Rousseau, which is imo equally plausible. 

(@tabellae-rex-in-sui do you remember?)

edgysaintjust:

saint-jussy:

chromaenthusiast:

Your follower count is how many years the time machine is taking you back, where are you going?

@robespapier​ tell him he ends up getting buried with Rousseau in the Pantheon, together forever ❤

That would be hilarious since this Zozo would assume you mean Jean-Baptiste, he’d watch him die and think he won. Years later he finally quarrels with Jean-Jacques and begins to realize. 

JJ Rousseau was born in 1712 so at this point he’d be 14 years old (Voltaire would be 30) and Voltaire wouldn’t even know he exists. He’d definitely assume JB Rousseau, especially since he was one of the most well-known writers at that time. They might have even still been on reasonably good terms in 1724, I don’t remember exactly when their relationship went sour.

Fun fact! There is also a third less known Rousseau Voltaire pissed off at some point. And we know that cause JJ made a joke about it in a letter.

idieonthishill:

Superiority ‘complex’? Actually I find it quite simple

tabellae-rex-in-sui:

The fact that Voltaire was too annoying to be a proper court jester

le-roi-des-bulgares:

Voltaire, after recounting events from 1759 in his memoirs, ends the part with a quote from Corneille’s Cinna: 

Voilà, belle Émilie, à quel point nous en sommes.

While reading the whole 1759 part I find it to be kinda aimless and was wondering who exactly is the audience he had in mind for .. then This line absolutely destroyed me

VOLTAIRE, philosophe des Lumières

« Il me semble qu’une femme ne doit point sortir de sa sphère pour s’étaler en public, et hasarder une pièce médiocre. C’est le dernier des métiers pour un homme, et le comble de l’avilissement pour une femme. Il y a une certaine dignité attachée à l’état de femme qu’il ne faut pas avilir. Une femme d’esprit dont on ambitionne les suffrages joue à un beau rôle, elle est bien dégradée quand elle se fait auteur comique et qu’elle ne réussit pas. »

À l'époque déjà il aurait fallu changer les ampoules.