Voltaire

Last updated: 2026-01-26

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This article is part of the Basic Course on Libertarianism and the Austrian School of Economics-> Module 3: Political Institutions

Life of Voltaire

1. Youth and rebellion (1694–1726)

François-Marie Arouet was born on 21 November 1694 in Paris, into a well-off but non-noble family (his father was a notary and official). He was educated by the Jesuits at the prestigious Collège Louis-le-Grand. Although his father wanted him to be a lawyer, he decided to become “a man of letters.”

The Bastille: His sharp tongue and pen landed him in the Bastille prison twice. The first time, for writing satirical verses against the Regent of France; the second, after a dispute with the Chevalier de Rohan, a nobleman who had him beaten.

2. Exile in England (1726–1729)

This was the turning point in his life. In England he encountered the ideas of Isaac Newton and John Locke. He was astonished by British freedom of expression and religious toleration, which contrasted with French absolutism. Upon leaving he definitively adopted the pseudonym Voltaire (possibly an anagram of Arouet le Jeune or of the place Airvault).

Philosophical Letters: On returning to France, he published this work praising the English system. The book was publicly burned and an arrest warrant was issued against him.

3. Cirey and Madame du Châtelet (1734–1749)

To escape justice, he took refuge at the château of Cirey with his lover, the brilliant scientist Émilie du Châtelet. It was a period of intense intellectual production. Together they studied physics, mathematics, and philosophy. Émilie was crucial for Voltaire’s understanding and diffusion of Newton’s science in France.

4. Prussia and “Enlightened Monarchy” (1750–1753)

After Émilie’s death, Voltaire accepted the invitation of Frederick II the Great of Prussia. Although at first they admired each other, the relationship ended badly because of both men’s strong characters. Voltaire fled the court at Potsdam after several disputes and mockeries directed at other academics protected by the king.

5. The patriarch of Ferney (1758–1778)

Finally he settled on a property called Ferney, right on the border between France and Switzerland (so he could escape quickly if pursued). There he lived his years of greatest glory:

Judicial activism: He became the “defender of the oppressed,” fighting for the rehabilitation of victims of religious intolerance, as in the famous Calas affair.
Major works: He wrote his famous satire Candide (1759) and his Philosophical Dictionary (1764).
Wealth: He was one of the first writers to become immensely rich through his works and shrewd investments (including a legal trick to win the French lottery).

His triumphant return and death

In 1778, at the age of 83, he returned to Paris after decades of exile. He was received as a national hero. However, the exhaustion of the tributes finished his health. He died on 30 May 1778. Because of his criticisms of the Church, he was denied ecclesiastical burial, but after the French Revolution his remains were transferred with honors to the Panthéon.

What books did he write?

Voltaire was one of the most prolific writers in history: he is credited with more than 2,000 books and pamphlets, more than 50 plays, epic poems, histories, essays, and thousands of letters. Yet his most influential and most widely read works today are concentrated in a few titles that condense his satirical genius, his defense of tolerance, his critique of religious fanaticism, and his Enlightenment philosophy.

Here are Voltaire’s main books (and key works), ordered by importance and historical impact:

Candide, or Optimism (Candide, ou l’Optimisme, 1759)
His undisputed masterpiece and the most read today. A short satirical novel that ridicules Leibnizian optimism (“we live in the best of all possible worlds”) through the absurd and tragic misadventures of the naive Candide. It is a fierce critique of fanaticism, war, organized religion, and social injustice. Iconic line: “Il faut cultiver notre jardin” (We must cultivate our garden).
Philosophical Letters (Lettres philosophiques or Lettres sur les Anglais, 1734)
Written after his exile in England. It favorably compares English liberty (religious toleration, constitutional monarchy, the scientific advances of Newton and Locke) with French absolutism and fanaticism. It caused an enormous scandal: the book was publicly burned and Voltaire had to flee. It is one of the foundational works of the Enlightenment.
Treatise on Tolerance (Traité sur la tolérance, 1763)
Written in the wake of the Calas case (a Protestant unjustly executed). It is a passionate plea against religious intolerance, persecution, and the abuses of Church and State. It defends freedom of conscience and the separation of Church and State. Highly influential on the French Revolution and on modern ideas of human rights.
Philosophical Dictionary (Dictionnaire philosophique portatif, 1764)
A collection of short, ironic, and devastating articles on religion, morals, politics, superstition, and more. It attacks fanaticism directly (“Écrasez l’Infâme” — Crush the Infamous, referring to religious fanaticism). It was banned and burned in several countries, but became a key weapon of the Enlightenment.
The Age of Louis XIV (Le Siècle de Louis XIV, 1751)
A monumental historical work. Voltaire presents the reign of Louis XIV as an age of cultural and artistic splendor (the French “golden age”), but also criticizes absolutism, wars, and intolerance (the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). It is considered one of the first modern histories that values civilization above battles.

On what or whom did he base his ideas?

Voltaire was not a completely original thinker in the sense of creating a new philosophical system from scratch, but a great popularizer and disseminator of ideas that he transformed and adapted to his French context. His main ideas—defense of reason, religious toleration, empiricism, deism, freedom of expression, and critique of fanaticism and absolutism—were strongly inspired by several thinkers and currents, especially during his exile in England (1726–1729), which was decisive.

Here are the main influences and on whom Voltaire drew:

John Locke (1632–1704) — The most important for his epistemology and politics
Locke was his great model of empiricism: the idea that knowledge comes from sensory experience (not from innate ideas), rejects dogmatism, and defends religious toleration (in his Letter Concerning Toleration). Voltaire admired his political libertarianism (limited government, natural rights) and spread it in the Philosophical Letters. Locke influenced his rejection of absolutism and his vision of a freer society.
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) — Scientific and deist inspiration
Voltaire became one of the greatest promoters of Newtonianism in France (he translated and disseminated Newton’s ideas, together with Émilie du Châtelet). He admired the empirical method, natural laws, and the idea of a clockmaker God who creates a universe ordered by rational laws but does not intervene (deism). For him Newton represented the victory of reason and science over superstition.
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) — Father of modern empiricism
Voltaire cites him as one of the great precursors of the Enlightenment: emphasis on observation, experimentation, and rejection of empty metaphysical speculation. Bacon inspired his confidence in practical science to improve human life.
Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) — Toleration and skepticism
A French Protestant philosopher in exile, Bayle influenced Voltaire enormously with his radical skepticism and his defense of toleration even toward atheists (in his Dictionnaire historique et critique). Voltaire took from him the idea that blind faith leads to fanaticism and that reason must question everything.
English deists (such as Anthony Collins, John Toland, and others)
Deism—belief in a rational creator God, while rejecting revealed dogmas, miracles, and the organized Church—Voltaire adopted almost entirely after his stay in England. He saw in deism a “natural” and tolerant religion, opposed to French Catholic fanaticism.
Other lesser influences or contrasts:
René Descartes — He respected him for rationalism, but criticized his speculative metaphysics and preferred English empiricism.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — He attacked him harshly (in Candide, Pangloss is a caricature of him) for his optimism (“the best of all possible worlds”), which Voltaire saw as absurd in the face of real suffering.
Montesquieu — Contemporary and friend; they shared ideas on separation of powers and critique of absolutism, but Voltaire was more radical in his anticlericalism.
Confucianism (through European translations) — He admired it as a model of rational morality without religious dogmas.

What was his ethical thought?

The ethical thought of Voltaire does not present itself as a rigorous, systematic philosophical system (as in Kant or Spinoza), but as a practical, combative, and pragmatic attitude, deeply rooted in the Enlightenment. His ethics centers on reason, social utility, toleration, and the fight against unnecessary human suffering, more than on divine commands or absolute metaphysical principles.

Rational and deist basis of morality
Voltaire was a deist: he believed in a rational creator God (a “clockmaker” who establishes natural laws), but rejected revealed dogmas, miracles, and divine intervention in human affairs. For him, morality does not depend on organized religion or divine commands, but on human reason and a universal “natural morality”:
Respect the other as a rational being.
Avoid unnecessary harm.
Promote justice and earthly happiness.
Famous phrase (attributed or paraphrased): “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him” (to maintain social and moral order among the masses, though he himself did not need that belief in order to be ethical).
Toleration as a central ethical principle
Toleration is not mere indifference, but an active moral duty: to allow others to believe and live according to their conscience, so long as they do not attack society or the lives of others.
He fiercely attacked religious fanaticism (“Écrasez l’Infâme” — Crush the Infamous), which he saw as the greatest source of cruelty and injustice.
He defended freedom of conscience and expression (even for opinions he did not share).
Limits: he did not tolerate militant atheism if it threatened social order (because he believed that belief in a supervising God helped curb popular vice), nor fanaticism that incited violence.
Rejection of metaphysical optimism and the ethics of suffering
In Candide (1759) he harshly criticizes Leibnizianism (“we live in the best of all possible worlds”). For Voltaire, evil exists (earthquakes, wars, injustices), and denying it is immoral because it justifies passivity in the face of suffering.
Ethics must be practical and combative: fight real injustices (cases such as Calas, Sirven, or La Barre, where he defended victims of judicial fanaticism).
There is no benevolent providence; human beings must take responsibility to reduce evil through reason, education, and reform.
Moderate hedonism and social utility
Influenced by English empiricism (Locke, Newton), Voltaire defended an ethics that values pleasure and earthly happiness (rejecting Christian asceticism).
Morality should maximize pleasure and minimize pain (Enlightenment hedonistic calculus).
But not pure egoism: individual good is achieved in society, through just laws, education, and progress.
He defended property, commerce, and economic freedom as means to prosperity (early libertarianism).
Moderate anthropological pessimism and enlightened elitism
He distrusted the masses (superstitious, manipulable) and direct democracy. He believed that only an enlightened elite (philosopher-kings or enlightened despots) could guide morally and politically.
Yet his final ethics is pragmatic humanism: “We must cultivate our garden” (Candide) → focus on improving what is within our reach (local justice, education, personal toleration), without utopian illusions.

In synthesis
Voltaire’s ethics is secular, rational, tolerant, and activist:
- Morality arises from reason and human experience, not from dogmas.
- The supreme ethical end is to reduce suffering and fanaticism, promoting liberty, justice, and earthly happiness.
- His practical motto: combat intolerance and abuse of power with irony, reason, and concrete action.

In what sense was Voltaire a natural-law thinker?

Voltaire can be considered a natural-law thinker, though with a very particular nuance: his is a natural law of tolerance and common sense.

Unlike Locke (who focused on property) or Rousseau (who focused on the will of the people), Voltaire uses Natural Law as a weapon against religious fanaticism and the injustice of the judicial system of his time.

1. Natural Law as “Universal Morality”

Voltaire believed that there exists a basic sense of justice that God (under a deist view) placed in the heart of all men. For him, Natural Law is not a complex treatise of laws, but a simple principle:

“Do not do to others what you would not want done to you.”
He held that, while civil laws change from country to country (what is legal in France may be illegal in England), the notion of what is just or unjust is the same for a Chinese, an Indian, or a European.

2. The Right to Freedom of Conscience

For Voltaire, the most sacred natural right is freedom of thought and of worship.

He argued that no human law (of the king or of the church) has the right to violate an individual’s conscience.
If a civil law imposes a religion or persecutes someone for their ideas, that law is null because it violates the natural law of liberty.

3. The Critique of Positive Law (Human laws)

Voltaire devoted a large part of his life to denouncing cases where the laws of men violated natural justice.

The Calas case: He defended a man unjustly executed because of religious fanaticism, arguing that the trial was legal under the laws of the time, but criminal under the law of nature.
For him, natural-law thinking served to say: “This written law is a barbarity and must be changed because it offends human reason.”

4. Difference from other natural-law thinkers

It is important to note that Voltaire was not a theorist of the “social contract” like those we saw earlier.

He was less interested in explaining where the State comes from than in how to limit its cruelty.
His natural-law approach is practical: he used it to demand the abolition of torture, freedom of the press, and equality before the law.

In summary: Voltaire is a natural-law thinker in the sense that he believes in a universal justice based on reason, which serves as a tribunal to judge and condemn the unjust laws of kings and churches.

What were his strangest or most contradictory ideas?

Voltaire was one of the most ironic, sarcastic, and changeable thinkers of the Enlightenment, which led him to hold positions that many consider strange, contradictory, or paradoxical even within his own work. He was not a systematizer like Kant or Leibniz, but a polemicist who prioritized practical critique, satire, and the fight against fanaticism, so his ideas often contradicted one another or the common sense of his age (and of ours).

1. “Enlightened” racism (one of the most shocking today)

Voltaire defended toleration and equality before the law… but only among white Europeans.

In the Essay on the Manners and in articles of the Philosophical Dictionary, he asserts that Black people are an inferior race (“Blacks are inferior to whites, as whites are to apes”).
He justified slavery in some contexts and saw non-European peoples as “barbarians” or less rational.
This clashes brutally with his universal defense of reason and natural rights. It is a classic example of how the Enlightenment was not immune to Eurocentric racism.
It is known that he held shares in the Company of the Indies, which participated in the slave trade. Although in his books (as in Candide) he denounced the horror of slavery on the sugar plantations, in his private life he did not hesitate to profit from the system that sustained that horror.

2. Militant deism + virulent antisemitism

He was a deist: he believed in a rational, non-interventionist clockmaker God, and fiercely attacked religious fanaticism (Catholic, Protestant, Muslim).
Yet:
- His hatred of Judaism was disproportionate and obsessive (he called Jews an “infamous nation,” “usurers,” etc., in multiple texts).
- He criticized the Hebrew Bible with arguments that today read as classic antisemitism.
This contradicts his motto “Écrasez l’infâme” (crush religious infamy) applied selectively: much harder on Judaism than on other religions.

3. Defense of enlightened monarchy + fierce critiques of absolutism

He supported “enlightened” monarchs such as Frederick II of Prussia or Catherine the Great (he wrote them flattering letters).
But at the same time:
- He criticized despotism and royal arbitrariness and defended limits on power (influenced by Locke and the English model).
- He ended up disappointed in Frederick II (he called him a tyrant in private).
It is a practical contradiction: intellectually liberal, but politically elitist and pragmatic with the powerful.

4. Optimism vs. radical pessimism (the case of Candide)

In his youth he admired Leibnizian optimism (“all is well in the best of all possible worlds”).
After the Lisbon earthquake (1755), he rejected it with fury in Candide (1759): a brutal satire against any optimistic theodicy.
Yet:
- In other texts he defends a form of “moderate optimism” or “cultivate our garden” as practical resignation.
- Some see in the ending of Candide a contradiction: he rejects metaphysical optimism, but proposes a pragmatic, industrious optimism.

5. Toleration… with very clear limits

The phrase “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” he never said (it is apocryphal, from Evelyn Beatrice Hall summarizing his spirit).
Voltaire defended religious and opinion toleration… but not absolute:
- He supported censoring or persecuting fanatics, Jesuits, or “infamous” people who promoted intolerance.
- In private he was ruthless with his enemies (accusations, calumnies).
It is a “militant” toleration: tolerate everything except intolerance itself.

6. Positions on property and inequality

He criticized extreme inequality and the luxury of the nobility.
But he was rich, a successful financial speculator, and defended private property as the basis of liberty.
He lived as an enlightened aristocrat while satirizing the aristocracy.

Summary table of main contradictions

“Strange” / contradictory idea	What the paradox consists in
Enlightened racism	Defends natural rights… but ranks races (whites > Blacks > apes)
Selective antisemitism	Attacks all religious fanaticism… but special obsession against Jews
Enlightened monarchy vs. libertarianism	Admires enlightened despots while defending limits on power
Optimism rejected but pragmatic	Satires “all is well”… but concludes “we must cultivate our garden”
Militant toleration	Defends freedom of expression… but not for the “infamous” or the intolerant
Extreme anticlericalism + deism	Hates the Church… but believes in a rational God (not an atheist)

Voltaire was contradictory because he was pragmatic and polemical, not a systematic philosopher. He changed his mind according to the enemy of the moment, and his genius lay in irony more than in coherence. Many see him as a “brilliant contradictory figure” who reflected the tensions of his age.

What did Voltaire think about the State?

To understand Voltaire’s position on the State, one must set aside the idea that all Enlightenment philosophers wanted a democracy. Voltaire was, above all, a pragmatist. He was less interested in who governed than in how they governed.

His political thought is summed up in the concept of Enlightened Despotism.

1. The “Philosopher King” (The enlightened despot)

Unlike Rousseau, who trusted the people, Voltaire deeply distrusted the masses, whom he called “the rabble.” He believed that social change would not come from a popular revolution, but from the education of monarchs.

His idea: An absolute monarch, but “enlightened” by reason and philosophy, was the best instrument for modernizing society.
The goal: That the State be efficient, eliminate the privileges of the Church, and guarantee civil liberty.

2. The main function: Guaranteeing Civil Liberty

For Voltaire, the State did not necessarily have to be representative, but it did have to be useful. The “good State” is the one that protects:

Freedom of thought and expression: The State must prevent the Church from punishing those who think differently.
Private property: He considered the security of property essential to the nation’s prosperity.
Equal justice: He fought for the State to abolish torture and arbitrary trials based on religion.

3. The subordination of the Church to the State

This is a key point of his rationalist natural-law thinking. Voltaire believed that the State should be the supreme authority, and the Church a subordinate institution.

He believed that religious fanaticism was the greatest threat to public peace.
The State should be secular in practice, limiting the power of priests to spiritual matters and stripping them of any political or judicial power.

4. Monarchy or Republic?

Although he admired the English parliamentary system (where the king was limited by laws), Voltaire was never a convinced republican for France.

He thought that a strong, centralized monarchy was the only form capable of breaking the resistance of the nobility and the clergy, who for him were the true brakes on progress.
He said: “I would rather obey a lion of good breed than two hundred rats of my own species,” meaning that he preferred a single intelligent command to a multitude of mediocre assemblymen.

In summary: The State as a “Tool of Progress”

For Voltaire, the State is an administrative machinery that must serve reason. If the State is efficient, protects freedom of the press, and curbs fanaticism, it does not matter that it is an absolute monarchy.

Curious fact: His close relationship with Frederick II of Prussia was a real attempt to put this into practice. He wanted to be the king’s “tutor” so that the king would rule in the light of reason. They ended up quarreling, which shows that his idea of the “philosopher king” was, perhaps, his greatest utopia.

What were the greatest criticisms of his ideas?

Criticisms of Voltaire came from every possible front: from the Church he attacked so fiercely, to his own fellow philosophers who considered him a hypocrite or a conservative in disguise.

1. Rousseau’s critique: The philosopher of the rich

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was his greatest rival. His critique was social and moral:

Elites vs. the people: Rousseau accused Voltaire of writing only for the aristocracy and the upper bourgeoisie. While Voltaire wanted to “enlighten” kings, Rousseau wanted to empower the people.
Corruption through art: Rousseau argued that Voltaire’s emphasis on the arts, luxury, and theater did not civilize man, but corrupted him and drew him away from his natural goodness.
The famous letter on optimism: After the Lisbon earthquake, Voltaire wrote a very pessimistic poem. Rousseau replied criticizing him for taking hope away from people and for living in luxury while complaining about the universe.

2. The Church’s critique: The “Apostle of Infidelity”

For the Catholic and Protestant hierarchy, Voltaire was not a seeker of truth, but a destroyer of social morality.

Disguised atheism: Although Voltaire was a deist (he believed in an architect God), the Church accused him of being a covert atheist whose only goal was to destroy the social cohesion that religion provided.
Lack of depth: Theologians of the time said that his criticisms of the Bible were superficial and that he only sought the easy joke and mockery instead of serious debate.

3. Criticisms of his political incoherence

Many later and contemporary thinkers pointed out that his ideas about liberty were contradictory:

The defender of tyrants: He was harshly criticized for his closeness to despots such as Frederick II of Prussia. His critics said that Voltaire was willing to forgive the lack of political liberty so long as the king was kind to philosophers and persecuted the Church.
Contempt for popular education: Voltaire said that “the people will always be stupid and barbarous” and that it was not worth teaching workers to read. This earned him criticism for being an intellectual elitist who only sought liberty for people of his own class.

4. Criticisms of his character and personal ethics

Even his friends, such as the philosopher Diderot, sometimes distanced themselves from him:

Financial speculator: He was criticized for being excessively ambitious about money. His maneuvers to win the Paris lottery (exploiting a government calculation error) and his lending businesses to nobles made him look more like a shrewd businessman than a disinterested sage.
Vanity: Many described him as a man who could not stand intellectual competition and who used his wit to destroy reputations cruelly if someone contradicted him.

In summary: The three fronts of criticism

Critic	Main reason
Rousseau	Elitism, defense of luxury, and lack of faith in democracy.
The Church	Blasphemy, impiety, and undermining the foundations of public morality.
Later intellectuals	Racism (antisemitism), support for despotism, and defense of slavery.

What were the criticisms of his private life?

Voltaire’s private life was as scandalous for his age as his books. His critics attacked him not only for his ideas, but for his lifestyle, which many considered hypocritical, ambitious, and morally questionable.

1. The “Millionaire Philosopher” and Speculator

While other philosophers such as Rousseau lived almost in poverty, Voltaire accumulated one of the largest fortunes in France. This earned him criticism for avarice:

Lottery scheme: He discovered a mathematical error in the French state lottery and, together with a mathematician, bought all the tickets to win the jackpot. His critics said he was a “cheat” who exploited the weakness of the State he claimed to want to reform.
Lender to nobles: He acted as a private bank, lending money to princes and nobles at high interest. He was accused of being a “greedy bourgeois” more than a disinterested thinker.

2. The scandal with the Marquise du Châtelet

Voltaire lived for 15 years at the château of Cirey with Émilie du Châtelet, a brilliant scientist. The problem for the society of the time was:

The love triangle: Émilie was married, and her husband sometimes lived with them. Critics mocked Voltaire as a “parasite” of the marquise and criticized him for living in public concubinage, defying the norms of Christian marriage.
After her death: When Émilie died in childbirth (of a child by another lover), Voltaire was criticized for his desperate reaction and, at the same time, for how quickly he sought new company.

3. The relationship with his niece (Madame Denis)

After Émilie’s death, Voltaire began a romantic relationship with his own niece, Marie-Louise Mignot.

Accusation of incest: Although at the time it was not illegal under certain conditions, for his enemies it was definitive proof of his “moral depravity.” His private letters (which came to light much later) showed extremely erotic language that his detractors used to paint the image of an old libertine without ethics.

4. Homosexuality or bisexuality (accusations and rumors)

There were persistent rumors that Voltaire had homosexual or bisexual inclinations.
- In his youth he was accused of relationships with men (including a supposed affair with the actor Lekain or with the Chevalier de Rohan-Chabot, which led to a famous duel in 1726).
- Enemies such as Rousseau and clerics called him a “sodomite” or hinted at practices “against nature” to discredit him.
- Voltaire replied with irony and denials, but the rumors persisted and were used to attack him as “morally depraved.” Today historians see him more as bisexual or fluid, but in his time it was a serious weapon of discredit.

5. Financial speculation and “unethical” enrichment

Voltaire accumulated a large fortune through speculation, lotteries, and high-interest loans.
- In 1729 he took part in a royal lottery scheme (with the mathematician La Condamine) that made him rich quickly → he was accused of fraud or abuse of privileged information.
- He lent money to nobles and kings (including Frederick II of Prussia) at high interest, and demanded payment harshly.
- Critics called him a usurer, a miser, and contradictory: he criticized greed and corruption, but lived as a millionaire speculator (he bought properties, had servants, and a luxurious lifestyle at Ferney).

6. Opportunistic flattery of the powerful and exiles over scandals

His life was marked by multiple exiles and flights (England, Prussia, Switzerland) because of satires and libels.
- He flattered Frederick II (he lived at his court 1750–1753) and Catherine the Great, but later criticized them privately or publicly when disappointed → he was accused of hypocrisy and opportunism.
- His personal satires (against nobles, clerics, or the Regent Orléans) provoked duels, imprisonments (Bastille), and banishments → enemies saw him as a cynical provocateur who sought fame at any cost.

7. Atheism or practiced irreligion (militant deism)

Although he was a deist (he believed in a rational God), his private life was extremely anticlerical: he did not go to Mass, ridiculed sacraments, and lived without organized religion.
- Clerics and devotees accused him of practical immorality: without fear of God, man fell into vices (lust, greed).
- Rousseau, in their personal enmity, attacked him saying that Voltaire corrupted public morals with his cynicism and lack of piety.

In conclusion, criticisms of Voltaire’s private life were often political and moral weapons used by his enemies to delegitimize his influence. Many saw him as a hypocrite: he preached rational virtue and toleration, but led a life of sexual, financial, and personal scandals that clashed with the morality of his age. Modern biographers (such as Ian Davidson or Nicholas Cronk) acknowledge that he was a contradictory, pragmatic, and provocative man, but also a genius who used his life as an extension of his social critique. Today these criticisms are seen more as a reflection of the prejudices of his time than as absolute defects.

What was Voltaire’s legacy?

Voltaire’s legacy is so immense that it practically defines the foundations of Western modernity. He did not leave a closed philosophical system (like Kant or Hegel), but something far more powerful: a critical attitude toward authority.

Here is a summary of the pillars of his inheritance that remain alive today:

1. The model of the “Engaged Intellectual”

Before Voltaire, writers wrote to entertain or to theorize. Voltaire invented the intellectual who uses fame and the pen to defend social causes.

Judicial activism: He was the first to fight for the review of unjust sentences (as in the Calas affair).
Legacy: Every time a writer or public figure uses their voice to denounce a state injustice, they are following the path he traced.

2. Toleration as a civil value

His work Treatise on Tolerance is the foundational text of modern coexistence.

The idea: We need not agree in our beliefs in order to live under the same laws.
Separation of Church and State: Voltaire laid the groundwork for the State as a secular space where religion does not interfere in civil justice. Without him, the modern concept of secularism would be unthinkable.

3. The radical defense of freedom of expression

Although the famous phrase “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” was in fact written by his biographer (Evelyn Beatrice Hall) to summarize his thought, it reflects his legacy exactly.

Voltaire showed that the progress of society depends on the free flow of ideas, even those that are offensive to power.

4. Rationalist humanism (practical natural law)

As discussed above, his legacy in natural law was to bring the “Law of Nature” down to earth.

Civil rights: He helped law cease to be “what God or the King say” and become “what reason dictates for human well-being.”
Abolition of barbarity: His criticisms were fundamental for Europe’s abandonment of judicial torture and public executions for religious reasons.

5. The Voltairean “style”: Irony as a weapon

Voltaire bequeathed to literature and journalism the use of sarcasm and irony to disarm fanaticism.

He taught that it is often more effective to ridicule a tyrant than to attack him with hatred. His book Candide remains the basic manual on how to use humor to criticize blind optimism and human cruelty.

Summary of his impact

Sphere	Before Voltaire	After Voltaire
Religion	State obligation and fanaticism.	Private matter and toleration.
Justice	Based on faith and torture.	Based on evidence and reason.
Opinion	Absolute prior censorship.	Right to criticism and public debate.

Despite his personal contradictions (already analyzed), his legacy is that of a man who taught us to think for ourselves and to doubt any truth imposed by force.

What were his most famous phrases?

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) was a master of the witty, ironic, and provocative phrase. Many of his most famous quotations come from works such as Candide, the Philosophical Dictionary, the Treatise on Tolerance, or his letters. Some are misattributed (such as the most celebrated one about defending the right to speak), but they capture his spirit.

Here are the main and most representative phrases of his life and work, with the original French version (when known), English translation, and brief context:

“We must cultivate our garden.”
(Ending of Candide, 1759). It is his pragmatic conclusion after rejecting metaphysical optimism: instead of speculating about the “best of all possible worlds,” one must work on the concrete and improve everyday life.
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
(Épître à l’Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs, 1768). It expresses his deism: God is necessary for social morality, even though Voltaire criticizes organized religions.
“Crush the infamous!”
(Frequent in his letters, referring to religious fanaticism and superstition, especially the intolerant Catholic Church). His battle cry against religious oppression.
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
(Apocryphal; summarizes his thought as formulated by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in The Friends of Voltaire, 1906). It is the phrase most associated with him on freedom of expression, though he did not write it word for word.
“All is well in the best of all possible worlds.”
(Repeated ironically in Candide). Satire of Leibniz’s optimism: Voltaire uses this phrase to ridicule the idea that evil has a divine purpose.
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
(Philosophical Dictionary). A warning against perfectionism that blocks real advances (much cited in politics and management).
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
(Variant of an idea in Le Siècle de Louis XIV). Emphasizes curiosity and critical thinking.
“It is forbidden to kill; every murderer is punished, unless he kills in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
(Philosophical Dictionary). Mordant critique of war and state hypocrisy.
“Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: the very mad daughter of a very wise mother.”
(Philosophical Dictionary). Distinguishes between rational religion and fanaticism.
“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.”
(Attributed in various sources). Reflects his pragmatic humanism.
“Public opinion is stronger than Napoleon, than Voltaire, than all present and future ministers.”
(Letter or reflection). Recognizes the power of civil society.
“Great minds think alike.”
(Common variant). Expresses intellectual affinity.

This article is part of the Basic Course on Libertarianism and the Austrian School of Economics-> Module 3: Political Institutions

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Last updated: 2026-01-06

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