In the aftermath of the recent wave action in the Indian Ocean, even the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williamson [sic], proved himself a latter-day Voltairean by whimpering that he could see how this might shake belief in a friendly creator. Williamson is of course a notorious fool, who does an almost perfect imitation of a bleating and frightened sheep, but even so, one is forced to rub one's eyes in astonishment. Is it possible that a grown man could live so long and still have his personal composure, not to mention his lifetime job description, upset by a large ripple of seawater?
Christopher HitchensTag: stupidity religion atheism church-of-england insults voltaire 2004 theodicy sheep earthquakes natural-disasters 2004-earthquake-and-tsunami 2005 tsunamis archbishop-of-canterbury indian-ocean rowan-williams
Kissinger projects a strong impression of a man at home in the world and on top of his brief. But there are a number of occasions when it suits him to pose as a sort of Candide: naive, and ill-prepared for and easily unhorsed by events. No doubt this pose costs him something in point of self-esteem. It is a pose, furthermore, which he often adopts at precisely the time when the record shows him to be knowledgeable, and when knowledge or foreknowledge would also confront him with charges of responsibility or complicity.
Christopher HitchensTag: self-esteem crime voltaire turkey candide war-crimes naivete henry-kissinger cyprus 1974 turkish-invasion-of-cyprus
Vous craignez les livres comme certaines bourgades ont craint les violons. Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde.
VoltaireTag: reading dancing voltaire philosophical-dictionary
It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.
VoltaireTag: love voltaire candide pangloss
You are very harsh.'
'I have seen the world.
Tag: disillusionment world voltaire
But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything--in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.'
'You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.
After all, is our idea of God anything more than personified incomprehensibility?
{Said in a letter to Voltaire}
Tag: fallacy voltaire personification god-of-the-gaps incomprehensibility voltaire-letter
If I were king, I would redress an abuse which cuts back, as it were, one half of human kind. I would have women participate in all human rights, especially those of the mind.
Émilie du ChâteletTag: science women math voltaire rights engineering computer-programming passonate-minds
It is man´s faith to live either on agonies of fear and turmoil or in the prostration of boredom.
VoltaireGod's only excuse is that He doesn't exist," remarked Voltaire after a natural disaster that killed many people. Nietzsche loved this quote and wished he'd coined it!
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