5/10/2023 0 Comments Optimism voltaire![]() ![]() There are at least three distinct Voltaires. For all that he was a mad egomaniac and an unabashed self-promoter, he remains matchlessly entertaining company, incapable of either shame or shoddy thinking. ![]() In fact, he is most fun to read about when what he is doing is doing good, since he does good without being pious, an unusual mixture. On the Op-Ed page of the Times, he can ornament Paul Krugman or offend William Safire, and he is fun to read about, no matter what he is doing. Johnson dogmatized in the late eighteenth century, and though Pope still sings for those with ears to hear him, Voltaire still squabbles, a more lifelike sound, and does it everywhere. “No authors ever had so much fame in their own life-time as Pope and Voltaire,” Dr. Voltaire, like God, whom he patronized, is always there. Toad of Toad Hall-a grand bourgeois who was also a dissident. Voltaire ended up as a cross between Andrei Sakharov and Mr. ![]()
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