What does Veeky Forums think of Voltaire?

Who's he?

I don't

>Sam Harris
Who?

>1800s

He was dead long before the french revolution, mane.

There was a famous Beethoven quote upon hearing of his death: "The archfiend Voltaire is dead! Dead like a dog! Dead like a beast!"

Not sure why but that always stuck with me.

Don't like him, and Candide is garbage

Love Candide, very funny and fast moving.
Here's one of my favorite parts from very early in the book, where Candide manages to get kidnapped by and made to fight for the Bulgarian army. He has just been told he is now a hero for fighting for the king, and doesn't realize he is essentially a captive.

>Candide, all stupefied, could not yet very well realise how he was a hero. He resolved one fine day in spring to go for a walk, marching straight before him, believing that it was a privilege of the human as well as of the animal species to make use of their legs as they pleased. He had advanced two leagues when he was overtaken by four others, heroes of six feet, who bound him and carried him to a dungeon. He was asked which he would like the best, to be whipped six-and-thirty times through all the regiment, or to receive at once twelve balls of lead in his brain.

How badly do you think he would BTFO yall in person? scale of 1-100

"Voltaire is said to have drunk 40-50 cups of coffee a day."

I love that book. It is amazing when you find an older book that really tickles a modern-modern person. The Monk and parts of Quixote are the similar.

Candide is hilarious.

I lost it when Cunegonde's brother wants to fight Candide for courting his sister, because he has one less generation of noble blood... this happening on two occasions after immediately saving the Baron's life.

"Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets."

Wish there was some clarification on that 2,000 books and pamphlets. (I know, I know, can probably figure that out somewhere)

would be much less impressive if it was:
books: 5
party invitation pamphlets:1,980
rad zines: 15

20,000 letters thats just like, the equivalent of a facebook addict these days right?

>"Voltaire is said to have drunk 40-50 cups of coffee a day."

Who knows if this is true, or if it is some facetious anecdote "Wow, Voltaire has written so much, I wonder how he does it, he must drink 50 cups of coffee a day"
and someone wrote it down, and now who really knows if it is true, unless the horses mouth spoke of this

>tfw he wrote more than I'll ever read

I also read once that Kierkegaard drank (or slammed rather) several cups a day with so much sugar in it that it was visible above the coffee like an iceberg. Kinda explains why he wrote Fear & Trembling.