2016-11-21 Mon

“I might disagree with your opinion, but I am willing to give my life for your rights to express it.”
A much-needed philosophy in today’s haywire world, Voltaire in 18th-century attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state.

Born today as François-Marie Arouet, Voltaire is considered one of the greatest enlightened writers of France. In 1694, Voltaire was born in a very prosperous family.

Voltaire was a man with very strong opinions and wrote poetry and plays, as well as historical and philosophical works. His most well-known poetry includes The Henriade (1723) and The Maid of Orleans, which he started writing in 1730 but never fully completed.

Voltaire's body of writing also includes the notable historical works The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations (1756). In the latter, Voltaire took a unique approach to tracing the progression of world civilisation by focusing on social history and the arts.

Voltaire's popular philosophic works took the form of the short stories Micromégas (1752) and Plato's Dream (1756), as well as the famed satirical novella Candide (1759). In 1764, he published another of his acclaimed philosophical works, Dictionnaire philosophique, and an encyclopedic dictionary that embraced the concepts of Enlightenment and rejected the ideas of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1716, Voltaire was exiled to Tulle for mocking the Duc d'Orleans. In 1717, he returned to Paris, only to be arrested and exiled to the Bastille for a year on charges of writing libellous poetry. In February 1778, Voltaire returned for the first time in over 25 years to Paris. Voltaire returning to France died on May 30, 1778, in Paris.

He is remembered and honoured in France as a courageous polemicist who indefatigably fought for civil rights and who denounced the hypocrisies and injustices of the Ancien Régime. France as well as other countries have adorned Voltaire with philatelic tribute. A portrait stamp of Voltaire of 8 frank + 2 frank was issued in 1949 by French postal services. Czech Republic, Monaco, Guinea is some of the other countries who commemorated the great Voltaire.