Literature Network » Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire

Voltaire, the man behind 'Age of Enlightenment'

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From: The Hindustan Times
Date: 20070603
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NEW DELHI, India, June 3 -- If philosophy puts you to sleep, try Voltaire. For a combination of wisdom and wit, both often dispensed together, the Frenchman is unbeatable. Here's how he defined free speech: "I do not agree with a word that you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

And then enjoyed this freedom by critiquing the bigotry and tyranny of church and state. "Men will never be free," he wrote of his two pet aversions, "till the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Born in 1694 as Francois Marie Arouet, Voltaire spent a large part of his ...

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