Voltaire Essays

Essay On Voltaire
Voltaire once said "God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living
well" ("Voltaire Quotes"). Taking his own advice and using it in life, Voltaire wrote countless
numbers of books, poems, pamphlets and plays that criticized and analyzed the surroundings of his
time living. The philosophe took his personal life experiences and fixated them into many writings
such as Candide, The Age of Louis XIV and Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations.
Voltaire's work was influenced by the economic and political environment in France, his exile to
England, and by one of his lovers the "divine Emile". Voltaire's works were first influenced from life
experience by the economic and political environment in France....show more content...
Emilie du ChГўtelet was a noblewoman with a strong passion for science. She studied physics,
mathematics, and also published scientific articles and the first and only translation of Newton's
Principia into French, making her a true rarity during the enlightenment period (Soff). The two
first got together after Voltaire returned from his second exile. Emilie invited him to stay with her
and their relationship only bloomed from there. With the superior assistance of Emilie, Voltaire
was able to write and publish ElГ©mens de la philosophie de Newton in 1738. This was a
simplified guide to the scientist, making his advanced works more familiar to the people, including
the gravity of the planets, the proof of atoms, and the refraction of light. Voltaire then recognized
mow much he owed to Emilie for helping him with this masterpiece, so he made the frontispiece of
the work showing him being touched by the divine light of Newton, reflected down to earth by a
heavenly muse, Emilie du ChГўtelet. Not only did the two pick apart science works, but they also
started looking at biblical writings as well. The two quarreled in English about trivia and studied the
Old and New Testaments, picking them apart to get more information about religion and such. These
biblical studies were important to the preparation of the anti–religious novels Voltaire would
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Voltaire's Impact On Voltaire
Voltaire An enlightened thinker once said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it." Voltaire was one of the most praised philosophers of his time as he
impacted the views many people had on religion, freedom of speech, and literature. His most famous
works include the Candide, Poem on Lisbon Disaster, Zadig, and Micromegas, "These along with
twenty other philosophical tales made Voltairethe master of one of the French Enlightenment's most
fecund and innovative literary forms," (Riley 1). Voltaire changed the way people thought about the
Catholic Church through his plays, poems, and works mocking the injustices and flaws of society
and religion itself in his time. Voltaire was born Francois–Marie Arouet in Paris of 1694 to a family
of 5 children. A well known theory about his birthday is that he prefered to keep it a secret, as he
constantly stated it was in different months than people suspected. His mother, Marie Marguerite
d'Aumart, died when he was only seven years old. This allowed him to grow closer to his father,
who was free thinking and often encouraged him to speak his mind. He enrolled at the College
Louis– le–Grand, a Jesuit secondary school in Paris, and received a classical education. This is when
he first began to show promise as a writer.
After college, he studied law while employed as secretary at the French embassy in The Hague. He
then decided he wanted to devote his life to literature. He began

Voltaire
Voltaire's Letters on England is a collection of written documents that Voltaire wrote between 1726
and 1729 on his experiences he had while staying in England. After its publication in French in
1734, many people of French ethnicity saw it as a bashing of the French government, and even a
little bit on the Catholic religion. Voltairedoes seem to be fairly favorable towards the English in his
letters, which is understandable after he was exiled in his homeland of France multiple times. In
many cases Voltaire saw inEngland what he wished to see in France. In England, Voltaire saw a
land with a more tolerant government, and freedom of religion as compared to France, which he
saw as cruel and oppressive. Voltaire goes into detail,...show more content...
This is one of the many issues brought up in Letters on England that the French took as a slight
towards themselves after the letters were published. I believe that Voltaire was so firm on his
belief of a separation of religion and state because he himself was not a follower of any said
religion. Although Voltaire was not an atheist as many believed him to be. Voltaire did not believe
that a person did not have to be involved in any one religion to believe in God. Voltaire believed in
a higher power one supreme, intelligent being but not in any one particular religion. Although there
are aspects of the Anglicans that Voltaire does seem to disapprove of, he does believe the Anglicans
to be more virtuous than the French Catholics; another insult to the French people. "In morals the
Anglican clergy are more virtuous than the French, and this is why....They are not called to the
higher positions in the church until very late in life and at an age when men have no other passion
than avarice, when their ambition has little to feed on." He goes on to talk about how positions in
England rewarded for long services in not

Voltaire Research Paper
In 1694, FranГ§ois–Marie Arouet or commonly known as Voltaire, was born in Paris, France. He
was born into an upper–class family and was the youngest of five children out of which only three
survived childhood . His mother passed away when he was seven years and he grew a close
attachment to his godfather who was a freethinker . Voltaire was a clever man and he was very
educated. He had a strong interest in theater and poetry. He attended a Jesuit secondary school
called, CollГ©ge Louis–le–Grand where he received a classical education. Voltaire began to
develop a deeper passion for the literary arts against his father's will, who wanted him to become a
notary and join law school. To avoid conflict, he lied to his father claiming he was pursing...show
more content...
In his three years in Britain, Voltaire wrote a collection of philosophical letters on the English known
as the Lettres Phiosophiques sur les Anglais that caused a stigma since he previously wrote poorly
about the French that lead to Voltaire having to flee again. During this time, he developed
relationship that lasted fifteen years with married woman, Г‰milie du ChГўtelet.He began working
on writing plays for Louis XIV like his famous Alzire and Le Sie'cle de Louis XIV, which Voltaire
did not complete far until 1751 . In Voltaire's return to Potsdam he wrote one of the first
science–fiction novels and he had captured the attention of Prussian king, Fredrick the Great. Not
that much later, Voltaire was banned because of a controversy had struck out with the president of
the Berlin Academy known as Maupertuis and for publishing a pamphlet that mocked the king like
he had previously done with France. After many years of traveling and writing, Voltaire settled in
Geneva, Switzerland for twenty years before he speaks out against the Catholic Church on tolerance
and

Voltaire Rationalism
Voltaire was a rebellious and radical thinker, whose sharp wit and pointed satire drew the ire of
critics who say he disrespected the orthodoxy of church and state, and won the respect of a growing
rationalist movement that had emerged out of the public sphere in Europe between the 17th and
18th centuries. Although Voltaireis known today for being a philosophical powerhouse, whose
writing is the stuff of legend, for most of his life he only wrote plays, poems, and novels. It wasn't
until he was almost forty in 1733 that he published his first major philosophical work, "Letters
Concerning the English Nation." This was a series of letters that describe the customs, cultures
and great men of England, and even though his praise for England, a country "where all the arts
are honored and rewarded," and where one could think "free and nobly without being held back by
any servile fear," may be overblown, they are important nonetheless, because it highlights the virtues
that an Enlightened society should strive for. (114) In many ways these were not so much love
letters to England, as much as they were a call for the rest of Europe to progress in the rationalist
movement that England had set the tone for. Voltaire had suffered many setbacks in life before his
trip to England in spring of 1726 that had shaped his mindset, and made him skeptical to authority.
He was born Francois–Marie Arouet to a French aristocratic family in 1694 during the reign of king
Louis XIV. When Voltaire

Voltaire And Socrates
conclude the essay by comparing both Socrates' and the Good Brahmin's attitudes to your own view
on philosophy.
Philosophy is a subject that has deep roots in human civilization. People have always asked
questions from the dawn of time. However, there are those that strive to go a step further to gain
true understanding of things. These people analyze basic questions of existence that many would
accept just the way they are. These people are philosophers. Socrates' and Voltaire are two of the
most recognizable names in philosophy. Socrates was from Athens in the 400s B.C.E. Voltaire was a
French writer in the 1700s. While they are both considered great philosophers, their attitudes toward
the subject were a bit different.
If you read Voltaire's

Voltaire's Candide Essay
Candide On November 21, 1694, Francois–Marie Arouet, otherwise known as Voltaire, was born in
Paris. The youngest of five, son to Francois and Marie Arouet, Voltaire grew up in a household that
had come to know the pleasantries of upper class french society.
Marie, his mother, had gained the family access to Louis XIV court through her realtives. Because of
Voltaire's priviledged lineage he was able to study under the Abbe de Chateaneuf, at the
Louis–le–Grand Jesuit College in Paris. Voltaire spoke very highly of his Abbe in later years. After
ten years at school, he was sent to study law in Paris under his fathers orders. Early the following
year, 1715, Frances most famous absolutist monarch died and five year old...show more content...
The man in blue, later takes Candide and fits him with a Bulgar army uniform. His companions
find him to be a prodigy because the lashes he recieves decrease rapidly each day. Once Candide
is facing battle he says, " Nothing could have been more splendid, brilliant, smart or orderly then the
two armies. The trumpets, fifes, oboes, drums and cannons produced a harmony whose equal was
never heard in hell." (pg 22)
Though Voltaire may not have had this personal experience, the story had been heard many times.
Go to war fight and die for the power of a far off monarch. Candide may be simple, but he is not
stuipid. Once he sees the equal attrocities caused by the Bulgars and enemy Avars he takes the
opportunity, provided by chaos, to flee. Many of Voltaires writings are inclusive of the theme of
wrongful war. In Charles XII, one of his earlier works, he addresses the lust for conquest and its
consequences. At the age of eighteen, Charles XII had learned his talent for conquest and by the
end of the book he had lost more than he had gained. (green voltaire) Voltaire finds war to be the
same everywhere, his use of the words, "international law," and, " natural law," prove this. "The
Bulgars burned the Avars village in accordance with International law."( ) It was declared, by the old
woman, that international law involved searching for diamonds where, "...we women usually allow
nothing but the nozzle of an enema."

Voltaire Biography Essay
Francois–Marie Arouet is a French writer who is commonly known as Voltaire. Besides being a
writer, he was also an historian, philosopher, and a French lawyer who belonged to one of the main
representatives of the Illustration (European cultural and intellectual movement).
Voltaire was part of a noble family from the province of Poitou–Charentes. He studied latin and
greek in the private school Jusuita Louis–le Grand during Louis XIV last years of his reign.
On 1706 Voltairewrote Amulius y Numitor, which later on small fragments of it were found and
later published in the nineteenth century. His godfather Abad de Chateauneuf introduced him to la
Sociedad del Temple and in that same century he received a numerous amount of money, courtesy
of Ninon de Lenclos with the purpose of him buying some books. Later on he was in charge of
being the secretary of the French Embassy in the Hague in which he was fired from because of an
affair with a french refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. After this he...show more content...
By this time, Voltaire traveled to Berlin, where he was named Knight of the Royal Chamber. When
Madame de Chatelet died in 1749, Voltaire returned to Berlin invited by Frederick II the Great,
arriving to stay as a guest in the palace of Sanssouci to participate in the gatherings to which the
monarch was very nice. During that time he wrote The Century of Louis XIV and continued, with
Micromegas, the series of his short stories begun with Zadig . Due to some disputes with Federico II,
especially his disagreement with the new president of the Berlin Academy, Maupertuis, who
Federico had personally named, he was again expelled from Germany and, because of France's
refusal to accept his residence , Took refuge in Geneva, Switzerland, where he clashed with the
Calvinist mentality. His passion] for the theater and the chapter dedicated to Michael Servetus in his
Essay on customs shocked the

Candide by Voltaire Essay example
Voltaire was the author of the novella Candide, also known as "Optimism". The the novella, Voltaire
portrays the idea of Optimism as being illogical and absurd. In Candide, Voltaire satirizes the doctrine
of Optimism, an idea that was greatly used during the Enlightenment time period by philosophers. In
this narrative, Candide is a young man who goes through a series of undertakings and ventures
around the the globe where he experiences evil and adversity. Throughout his journeys, Candide
maintained the ideas of the teachings of his tutor, Pangloss. Candide and Pangloss believed in the
idea that "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds..." (Voltaire4). This belief is what
Voltaire pointed out to be an irrational way of...show more content...
To Voltaire, this type of optimism was foolish.
Even though many people practiced this doctrine Voltaire did not aside with it instead, he implanted
doubts on the chances of achieving true happiness and real conformism. Voltaire's opinion was that
one could not achieve true happiness in the real world but only experience it in an utopia. With the
many hardships that Candide goes through ultimately leads him to abandon his attitude of optimism.
Candide's misfortunes and adversities often contrasted with his optimistic view on life. Noticeably,
Voltaire uses this satirical piece as a way to criticize this exaggerated optimism. This tale as stated by
William Bottiglia, " Has had a great effect on modern writers who confront mankind's inhumanity to
fellow human beings by presenting the human condition absurdly, ironically, and humorously..."
(Bottiglia 112).
The theme of criticism "the best of all possible worlds" is present through the whole story.
Throughout the novel, Voltaire uses optimism satire to contrast with the catastrophes and human
affliction in the story. When Candide finds a moribund and sick Pangloss, Candide asks who is
at fault for his tragedy and Pangloss replies that " The disease was a necessity in this 'the best of
all possible worlds', for it was brought to Europe by Columbus' men, who also brought chocolate
and cochineal, two greater goods that well offset any negative effects of the disease," (Voltaire 17).
With all the

Voltaire
Voltaire was a talented, assertive, and controversial French writer from the
eighteenth century enlightenment period. He was born in 1694 to a wealthy
family in Paris, and given the name Francois–Marie Arouet. During the early
years of his life Voltaire endured many hardships. For instance, his mother
passed away when he was seven leaving only his father and older brother to
raise him. Unfortunately, this added insult to injury as Voltairedespised
both his father and brother. Nevertheless, Voltaire's determination allowed
him to rise above his early misfortunes, and he later went on to pursue
college at the College of Louis–le–Grand in Paris. Once there he studied
literature, despite his father's wishes that he pursue...show more content...
However, as the story progresses Candide encounters much chaos, and
brutality that forced him to question his beliefs. One example in the story
found Candide captured by the Bulgarians and forced to run the gauntlet
until he begged them to smash his head in. Moreover he later discovered
another terrible act when he witnessed the execution of an admiral for the
man's failure to succeed in battle. Upon his inquiry of the justice of the
act Candide was told, " it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to
time to encourage the others." The author uses the scenarios above
intentionally to question how such things could come to pass in a world
blessed with God's intervention.
The motive's Voltaire had for writing Candide were his disagreements with

the establishments of Absolute Monarchy and the State Catholic Church. He
not only argued against their existence as powers, but also with the rules,
belief systems, and laws they imposed on the general populous. Voltaire
believed men should have the right to worship what they chose, and the only
acceptable spiritual belief was Deism. Candide specifically attacked the
largely accepted philosophy of Optimism, theorized by Gottfried William von
Leibnez. According to

Essay Voltaire
Voltaire
The building blocks of the Enlightenment were formed out of a desire for truth, reason, and freedom
– virtually contingent upon the last. An examination of Voltaire's Candide and La Feyette's
Princess of Cleves, both well recognized pieces of the period, exemplify two views of freedom, the
first based on its use in moderation and the latter making it a relative term. Relative freedom
meaning it is correspondent to one's social, economic, and religious place with in society. In Candide
, the main character's own freedom and ability to make decisions is rather dangerous too not only
himself but to others as well. Freedom to choose to dedicate his life to a relentless pursuit of his
dear Cunegonde led to not only her...show more content...
Her way of life is according to the virginal, puritan values of her mother. The princess's gender,
along with the time period addressed in this novella, limit her freedom. The few liberties she is
left with only lead to her unhappiness and that of the two men in her life. The princess makes a
free decision to confess "such as no woman has ever made to her husband" of her forbidden
passions for another man (125). Her freedoms only haunt her and leave her alone in the end. It
causes the death of her beloved husband and the solitude of both her and the Duke. Accompanying
the negative outcomes, there are many restraints place on the degree to which the freedom
extends. When feeling overwhelmed with her surrounding society Madame de Cleves must ask
her husband if she may remain where they live as the court continues onward. Her one effort to
temporarily escape from the "bustle of the court" is questioned by another person, pure evidence of
the circumstantial freedom she is allowed. Along with her husband's powers, while her mother was
alive, she held on to a portion of Madame de Cleves' freedom. Her mother and society built the
rules and morals she lived by, none of which were her own. When confronted with the affliction
between her husband and the man she truly loves, her mother merely reminds her to think of "what
[she] owes [her] husband" and to "remember that [she] is in danger of losing that

Voltaire's Candide Essay
Voltaires's Candide
In Voltaires?s Candide, the main character, Candide, fails to live happily because he is looking
outside of himself and his circumstances to do it. Voltaire says through Candide's ultimate discovery
that happiness in many ways depends on a person's attitude. Voltaire's philosophy expressed through
Candide's final realization is that "We must cultivate our garden," which is the key to
happiness(p.585). By cultivating our garden, Voltaire means that we must make the best of our
situation in the present moment. We accept what we are given in life and work to make the best
of it. It all has to do with our perspective on life. We do not find happiness somewhere else or by
philosophizing about it, we open our eyes to the...show more content...
Pangloss?s philosophy explains in a superficial way why so many bad things happen to Candide
and other characters in the story. Because "everything is for the best of all possible worlds," the
bad and evil eventually lead to something good and are necessary for the good to happen(p.519).
Pangloss points this out to Candide at the end when he explains:
"All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for after all, if you had not been
driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn?t
been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn?t traveled across America on foot, if you hadn?t given a
good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn?t lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you
wouldn?t be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios"(p.585).
At the same time, Candide struggles with why the evil happens if it is indeed the best of all
possible worlds: "And whatever Master Pangloss said of the matter, I have often had occasion to
notice that things went badly in Westphalia"(p.551). One reason that Candide should not follow
blindly whatever Pangloss says is that the beliefs are not his own. Candide needs to look within
himself for the key to happiness. What makes Pangloss happy will not necessarily make Candide
happy. Candide learns to search himself in the end when he discovers that the key to his own
happiness is "cultivating

Candide by Voltaire Essay
Candide Voltaire's most classic work, Candide, is a satiric assault on most everything that was
prevalent in society during the author's lifetime. The entire novel can be regarded as a bleak story
where every character compares life stories to see whose life is worse. Just when the novel cannot
get anymore morbid or depressing, it does, to a much greater degree. While Candide is generally
considered a universal denunciation, it is optimism that Voltaire is attacking to the greatest degree.
However, there are numerous other satirical themes throughout the novel worth discussing. These
other areas of mockery include aristocratic snobbery, religious bigotry, militarism, and human nature.
There is good reason that Voltaire...show more content...
While all these terrible things were happening, it is no wonder Voltaire had a little problem
swallowing the "all is for the best" pill. All the foolish optimism actually had the exactly opposite
effect on him, and Candide was his way of expressing his views. His satire of optimism can be
seen throughout the book, but most heavily through the character of Pangloss the philosopher.
Pangloss and his ludicrous optimism make an impression on the reader immediately and are
constantly reinforced throughout the satire. His logic is so flawed that he comes across as an
utter imbecile. He suggests that noses are shaped the way they are so that glasses will fit them.
He even goes so far as to suggest that the venereal disease he is infected with is a blessing because
the disease also is associated with the discovery of chocolate and the New World. He also views
himself being burnt at the stake and being chained in a boat good things. However, the real satire
poking fun of the whole European fascination with Leibnizian optimism does not lie in Pangloss'
stupidity, but in all the other characters reaction to Pangloss. With such absurd reasoning, one
would think his contemporaries would ridicule Pangloss. However, the exact opposite is true.
Pangloss is referred to as "the most profound metaphysician in Germany," and he is highly
respected. This is very direct assault at Leibniz and his followers. Voltaire really makes sure he goes
out of

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