Who had the greater mind, Swift or Voltaire?

>not understanding a basic book

You're probably underage b&, but it's actually insightful about maturing and understanding the good things in life. Cultivate your own garden.

>thinking this is insightful

whew lad

I've never read Gulliver's Travels - because, until recently, I had assumed it was a children's book. Then I read an interesting summary of existentialist philosophy by William Barret called, "Irrational Man," and I've been curious about it.

Voltaire, however, has simply never attracted my attention.

*Whomst'd do I prefer

Whomst'dve do I prefer?

good post about how you've never read either person this thread is about, very interesting. good job. excellent addition.

i much prefer swift. gulliver's travels is hilarious and interesting throughout. candide kind of reminds me of a wacky children's cartoon.

What is the basis for this? Why the hate for Voltaire.

Everything he wrote about has become so taken for granted that it seems blasé.

It's hilarious.
He ain't funny. He just ain't funny

These don't seem like legitimate criticisms of Voltaire.

you're trying too hard you dumb faggots

>He ain't funny. He just ain't funny
Voltaire is hilarious, sounds like you're just a brainlet.

I have yet to read Candide but I've read Micromegas.

It's a bit of an unfair fight, but based on Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, I choose Swift even though Micromegas was great.

What did you think of Micromegas?

Better question, who wore the greater wig, Swift or Voltaire?

Voltaire was the most famous person living during his own life. He was courted by Kings, Philosophers, Scientists, Playwrights & Politicians. He had written on almost any subject imaginable, had published scores of essays, plays, pamphlets, novels, dissertations, letters & notes, had brought himself up from obscurity & low birth by the immense power of his inexhaustible wit to sit at the same tables as monarchs. He destroyed reputations & ruined fortunes with the stroke of his pen, his conversation was quoted far and wide, his company was the most priceless thing in all of Europe.

He was a genius through and through.

Good post (not sure if you ripped it off though).

R.I.P Sweet Princess

A large portion of Candide was arguing against Liebniz's theory of our world being "the best of all possible worlds" without ever actually engaging Liebniz's philosophy at all.

wtf I love Voltaire now

“Candide was struck with amazement and really could not conceive how
he came to be a hero. One fine spring morning he took it into his head to
take a walk, and he marched straight forward, conceiving it to be a
privilege of the human species, as well as of animals in general, to make
use of their legs how and when they pleased. He had not gone above two
leagues when he was overtaken by four other heroes, six feet high, who
bound him neck and heels and carried him to a dungeon. At the court- martial, he was asked which he preferred:
to be flogged thirty-six times by the whole regiment, or to have his brains blown out with a dozen musket
balls. In vain did he remonstrate with them, that the human will is free, and that he chose neither”

Oh I'm roaring with laughter, indubitably so, Voltaire, my good sire, was a gentleman and a scholar!

This too.