François-Marie Arouet, better know by his pen name Voltaire, was a prominent French writer and philosopher in the Age of Enlightenment. His best-known work, "Candide, ou l'Optimisme", was the brilliant satire on the state of the world and those that proclaim that "we live in the best of all possible worlds." Voltaire, who was born on this date in 1694, skewered the hypocrisies of the Church and illiberal thinking in his works, but was also guilty of uttering the ignorant racism and anti-Semitism accepted and widespread in his time. That said, he was the originator of many thoughtful observations, including:
"We are all guilty of the good we did not do."
"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities."
"If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing."
(photo: Detail of statue of Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon, Los Angeles Co. Museum of Art)
