why did voltaire s dad want him to become a lawyer instead of a writer

Voltaire had a strained relationship with his father, who discouraged his literary aspirations and tried to force him into a legal career. Possibly to show his rejection of his father’s values, he dropped his family name and adopted the nom de plume “Voltaire” upon completing his first play in 1718.

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Why did Voltaire want to be a lawyer?

Youthful Folly In addition to his startling views on religion, Voltaire had a fondness for writing scandalous poems and stories. Upon his graduation, he announced to his father that he intended to be a writer. His father thought that literary pursuits were useless and encouraged him to become a lawyer instead.

What did Voltaire want to do when he was a child?

From early in his youth, Voltaire aspired to emulate his idols Molière, Racine, and Corneille and become a playwright, yet Voltaire's father strenuously opposed the idea, hoping to install his son instead in a position of public authority. First as a law student, then as a lawyer's apprentice,...

How did Voltaire influence other writers?

In England, Voltaire's views influenced Godwin, Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Bentham, Byron and Shelley. Macaulay made note of the fear that Voltaire's very name incited in tyrants and fanatics.

What business did Voltaire set up in his old age?

He set up a successful watchmaking business in his old age. While living in Ferney, Switzerland, in the 1770s, Voltaire joined with a group of Swiss horologists in starting a watchmaking business at his estate.

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What is Voltaire's last name?

What was Voltaire's view on religion?

What happened to Voltaire in 1726?

How many books did Voltaire write?

Why did Voltaire reject the Adam and Eve story?

Where did Voltaire live after the Marquise died?

Where did Voltaire meet Frederick?

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What was Voltaire against?

Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher, who attacked the Catholic Church and advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.

Who was Voltaire's father?

François ArouetVoltaire / FatherEarly life. François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris, the youngest of the five children of François Arouet (1649–1722), a lawyer who was a minor treasury official, and his wife, Marie Marguerite Daumard ( c. 1660–1701), whose family was on the lowest rank of the French nobility.

What were the two main ideas of Voltaire?

He believed social progress could be achieved through reason and that no authority—religious or political or otherwise—should be immune to challenge by reason. He emphasized in his work the importance of tolerance, especially religious tolerance.

Why was François-Marie Arouet Voltaire important?

François-Marie d'Arouet (1694–1778), better known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French writer and public activist who played a singular role in defining the eighteenth-century movement called the Enlightenment.

What are two interesting facts about Voltaire?

10 Things You Should Know About VoltaireThe origins of his famous pen name are unclear. ... He was imprisoned in the Bastille for nearly a year. ... He became hugely wealthy by exploiting a flaw in the French lottery. ... He was an extraordinary prolific writer. ... Many of his most famous works were banned.

Did Voltaire rig the lottery?

As for Voltaire, he used his lottery winnings to invest in various business opportunities, often using information he learned from well placed individuals, like when to buy and sell certain shares of various ventures.

What did Voltaire believe quizlet?

Voltaire believed in a government with tolerance, reason, freedom of belief, and freedom of speech.

What was Voltaire's opinion on writing history?

Voltaire suggested that to write history, all the aspects of human life should be taken into consideration and not just the chronology or objective truth. Social traditions, trade, economy, agriculture, etc. are also equally important to writing history.

What was Voltaire's ideal form of government?

Voltaire believed that the best form of government was a constitutional monarchy that relied on the advice of philosophers and men of enlightened...

Who was the French writer who proposed the ideas of separation of powers and checks and balances in government?

MontesquieuMontesquieu was a French lawyer, man of letters, and one of the most influential political philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. His political theory work, particularly the idea of separation of powers, shaped the modern democratic government.

What does Voltaire believe in?

Voltaire was a proponent of personal liberty and freedom of speech, making the famous statement, "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." For Voltaire, rational human beings -- for the most part -- were capable of thinking for themselves and therefore did not need ...

What were Voltaire's last words?

Conversation. According to one story of French philosopher Voltaire's last words, his response to a priest at his deathbed urging him to renounce Satan was "Now is not the time for making new enemies." I'm sure he regretted it soon enough.

Voltaire | Biography, Philosophy and Facts

On the subject of morality, he tried to find a middle ground. In his most famous work Candide (1759), he spoke sharply against the overly optimistic philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.On the other hand, he also wrote in opposition of the pessimistic ideas regarding human evilness by Blaise Pascal.

What did Voltaire think about slavery? - Answers

What was Voltaire's role in the enlightment era? He wrote plays, novels, and essays attacking slavery, religious intolerance, and other social and political injustices

What did Voltaire illustrate?

At a time of religious persecution, Voltaire illustrated how religious dogmas were created by human ignorance and led to needless bloodshed and suffering. Voltaire was a key figure of the enlightenment which sought to use a range of scientific and literary books to explain the underlying nature of life.

What did Voltaire believe?

Voltaire had a mixed opinion of the Bible and was willing to criticise it. Though not professing a religion, he believed in God, as a matter of reason.

What was Voltaire known for?

Voltaire (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778) was a French writer, essayist, and philosopher – he was known for his wit, satire, and defence of civil liberties. He sought to defend freedom of religious and political thought and played a major role in the Enlightenment period of the eighteenth century.

How long did Voltaire live in England?

Voltaire spent three years in England, where he was influenced by British writers, such as William Shakespeare and also the different political system, which saw a constitutional monarchy rather than an absolute monarchy as in France. He also learnt from great scientists, such as Sir Isaac Newton.

What did Voltaire do to help the world?

During this time, Voltaire wrote on Newton’s scientific theories and helped to make Newton’s ideas accessible to a much wider section of European society. He also began attacking the church’s relationship with the state.

How many books did Voltaire write?

Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing more than 20,000 letters and over 2,000 books and pamphlets. Despite strict censorship laws, he frequently risked large penalties by breaking them and questioning the establishment.

Why was Voltaire exiled?

In 1726, he was exiled to England after being involved in a scuffle with a French nobleman. The nobleman used his wealth to have him arrested, and this would cause Voltaire to try and reform the French judicial system.

What was Voltaire's career?

7. He had a brief career as a spy for the French government. Voltaire struck up a lively correspondence with Frederick the Great in the late 1730s, and he later made several journeys to meet the Prussian monarch in person.

How did Voltaire become wealthy?

He became hugely wealthy by exploiting a flaw in the French lottery. In 1729, Voltaire teamed with mathematician Charles Marie de La Condamine and others to exploit a lucrative loophole in the French national lottery.

What did Voltaire do before he visited France?

Before one of these visits in 1743, Voltaire concocted an ill-advised scheme to use his new position to repair his reputation with the French court. After hatching a deal to serve as a government informant, he wrote several letters to the French giving inside dope on Frederick’s foreign policy and finances.

Why was Voltaire arrested?

He later endured another short stint in the Bastille in April 1726, when he was arrested for planning to duel an aristocrat that had insulted and beaten him.

Where did Voltaire start his watchmaking business?

9. He set up a successful watchmaking business in his old age. While living in Ferney, Switzerland, in the 1770s, Voltaire joined with a group of Swiss horologists in starting a watchmaking business at his estate.

Why did Voltaire run up against censorship?

Since his writing denigrated everything from organized religion to the justice system, Voltaire ran up against frequent censorship from the French government. A good portion of his work was suppressed, and the authorities even ordered certain books to be burned by the state executioner.

How many letters did Voltaire write?

Along the way, he also managed to squeeze in heaps of verse and a voluminous correspondence amounting to some 20,000 letters to friends and contemporaries. Voltaire supposedly kept up his prodigious output by spending up to 18 hours a day writing or dictating to secretaries, often while still in bed.

What did Voltaire advocate?

He advocated the principle that the punishment should fit the crime and criticized capital punishment and recourse to torture. Voltaire favored judges of integrity, chosen on the basis of merit and not by reason of their social origins. Voltaire died in Paris at the age of 83.

What was Voltaire's philosophy?

Voltaire’s histories were not impartial; they were propagandistic and debunking, depicting the progressive victory of enlightenment and fraternity over ignorance, fanaticism, and evil. He contributed to the French Encyclopedie and wrote treatises, pamphlets, and tracts condemning abuse, injustice, greed, and arbitrary power. He advocated the principle that the punishment should fit the crime and criticized capital punishment and recourse to torture. Voltaire favored judges of integrity, chosen on the basis of merit and not by reason of their social origins.

Why was Voltaire imprisoned?

In 1713 Voltaire was briefly exiled to the Netherlands. In 1717 he was imprisoned in the Bastille for satirical verses that ridiculed the government , and especially the regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orleans.

What was Voltaire's influence on the world?

18th century French satirist and philosopher Voltaire was an important influence on those who sought justice, free inquiry, and separation of church and state. He rejected everything irrational and incomprehensible and championed freedom of thought.

Why did Voltaire condone despotism?

Voltaire condoned enlightened despotism in the belief that a strong but just prince would prevent factions from destroying each other. However, Voltaire’s wit clashed with the king’s autocratic temper and led to frequent disputes. Voltaire left after two years for Geneva.

What did Voltaire's writings demonstrate?

Voltaire’s prolific biting satire and philosophical writings demonstrated his aversion to Christianity, intolerance, and tyranny. He pleaded for a socially involved type of literature. Meanwhile, he rejected everything irrational and incomprehensible and championed freedom of thought.

Where did Voltaire travel to?

French authorities condemned the book, and Voltaire fled from Paris to the independent duchy of Lorraine. In 1750 Voltaire journeyed to Berlin at the invitation of Frederick II of Prussia, with whom he had corresponded for years.

What did Voltaire learn?

From the age of ten until seventeen, Voltaire received classical instruction in Latin, rhetoric, and theology.

Why did Voltaire go to Frederick's court?

Despite their friendship, Voltaire still went to Frederick’s court in 1743 as a French spy to report back on Frederick’s intentions and capabilities with regards to the ongoing War of Austrian Succession. By the mid-1740s, Voltaire’s romance with the Marquise du Châtelet had begun to wind down.

Where did Voltaire publish La Henriade?

Instead, he and Rupelmonde journeyed to the Netherlands, where he secured a publisher in The Hague. Eventually, Voltaire convinced a French publisher to publish the poem, La Henriade, secretly. The poem was a success, as was his next play, which was performed at the wedding of Louis XV.

What happened to Voltaire in 1726?

In 1726, Voltaire became involved in a quarrel with a young nobleman who reportedly insulted Voltaire’s change of name. Voltaire challenged him to a duel, but the nobleman instead had Voltaire beaten, then arrested without a trial.

Why was Voltaire banned?

Because he did not get the approval of the official royal censor before publishing, and because the essays praised British religious freedom and human rights, the book was banned and Voltaire had to quickly flee from Paris.

What were Voltaire's major accomplishments?

Key Accomplishments: Voltaire published significant criticism of the French monarchy. His commentary on religious tolerance, historiographies, and civil liberties became a key component of Enlightenment thinking.

What was Voltaire's view of England?

As it turns out, Voltaire’s exile to England would change his entire outlook. He moved in the same circles as some of the leading figures of English society, thought, and culture, including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and more. In particular, he became fascinated by the government of England in comparison with France: England was a constitutional monarchy, whereas France still lived under an absolute monarchy. The country also had greater freedoms of speech and religion, which would become a key component of Voltaire’s criticisms and writings.

What was Voltaire's philosophy?

Philosophical Writings: Truth and Fiction Voltaire expressed his revolutionary views about political and religious freedoms through a myriad of genres. From the epistolary style of English Letters (1734)—in which he framed his opinions as a series of letters addressed to a friend in France—and the fictional Candide to his poetry and historical studies, Voltaire presented his Enlightenment philosophies in both direct and indirect ways. Voltaire is credited for inventing the philosophical conte, or story, a genre that expresses intellect through fantastical or absurd happenings. Stylistically speaking, he was as conscious about the fashion with which to best present his ideas as he was about fashion itself; he felt form was the key to expression. Interestingly enough, despite Voltaire's experimentation with many different genres, he had an affinity for the theater and his critical social commentary is reflected throughout a canon of more than twenty tragedies.

Who was Voltaire?

Voltaire (1694–1778) French philosopher, historian, playwright, and poet, b. François Marie Arouet. He is the outstanding figure of the French Enlightenment. Voltaire spent much of his life combating intolerance and injustice, and attacking institutions such as the Church. While in the Bastille (1717), he wrote his first tragedy Oedipe (1718). In 1726, Voltaire was beaten and returned to the Bastille for insulting a nobleman. While in exile in England (1726–29), he was strongly influenced by John Locke and Isaac Newton and wrote a classic biography of Charles XII of Sweden. Back in France, Voltaire wrote several tragedies and the eulogistic Philosophical Letters (1734), which provoked official censure. Voltaire corresponded for many years with Frederick II (the Great) and contributed to Diderot's Encyclopédie. His best-known work, the philosophical romance Candide (1759), published anonymously. Other works that express his philosophy of rationalism include Jeannot et Colin (1764), and Essay on Morals (1756). The Dictionnaire philosophique (1764) is a collection of his thoughts on contemporary matters.

What is Voltaire known for?

Voltaire wrote across genres as a poet-essayist-philosopher; he was known stylistically for his wit and thematically for his defense of civil liberties . An avid supporter of social reform in the face of strict censorship laws, he frequently used satire to criticize Catholic dogma and French institutions. The ideas Voltaire promoted in his work influenced important thinkers of both the American and French revolutions.

Is the spirit of Voltaire alive?

“The spirit of Voltaire”—to use the title of the classic work by Norman Torrey— remains vital and alive through his textual wit, the ironic verve of his commitments, and his sincere dedication to humanity in all of its global extent and variety. “Voltaire is a good vaccine against stupidity,” writes Emmanuel Berl in an introduction to Voltaire's works, and that kind of protection is as crucial today as it was in Voltaire's day.

What was Voltaire's background?

Voltaire’s background was middle class. According to his birth certificate he was born on November 21, 1694, but the hypothesis that his birth was kept secret cannot be dismissed, for he stated on several occasions that in fact it took place on February 20. He believed that he was the son of an officer named Rochebrune, who was also a songwriter. He had no love for either his putative father, François Arouet, a onetime notary who later became receiver in the Cour des Comptes (audit office), or his elder brother Armand. Almost nothing is known about his mother, of whom he hardly said anything. Having lost her when he was seven, he seems to have become an early rebel against family authority. He attached himself to his godfather, the abbé de Châteauneuf, a freethinker and an epicurean who presented the boy to the famous courtesan Ninon de Lenclos when she was in her 84th year. It is doubtless that he owed his positive outlook and his sense of reality to his bourgeois origins.

What is Voltaire's work?

Although only a few of his works are still read, he continues to be held in worldwide repute as a courageous crusader against tyranny, bigotry, and cruelty. Through its critical capacity, wit, and satire, Voltaire’s work vigorously propagates an ideal of progress to which people of all nations have remained responsive.

What happened to Voltaire after Louis XIV?

But when he dared to mock the dissolute regent, the duc d’Orléans, he was banished from Paris and then imprisoned in the Bastille for nearly a year (1717).

What did Voltaire believe?

Voltaire believed above all in the efficacy of reason. He believed social progress could be achieved through reason and that no authority—religious or political or otherwise—should be immune to challenge by reason. He emphasized in his work the importance of tolerance, especially religious tolerance.

Why was Voltaire so controversial?

Voltaire was quite controversial in his day, in no small part because of the critical nature of his work. His books and pamphlets contained scores of assaults on church authority and clerical power. They criticized French political institutions too, and many incorporated elaborate defenses of civil liberty.

What are Voltaire's main themes?

Common themes pervade his work: liberty, progress, and equality are discussed at length and in depth in many of Voltaire’s books and pamphlets.

What happened to the chevalier de Rohan?

His intellectual development was furthered by an accident: as the result of a quarrel with a member of one of the leading French families, the chevalier de Rohan, who had made fun of his adopted name, he was beaten up, taken to the Bastille, and then conducted to Calais on May 5, 1726, whence he set out for London.

Who was Voltaire?

Voltaire (real name François-Marie Arouet) (1694 - 1778) was a French philosopher and writer of the Age of Enlightenment. His intelligence, wit and style made him one of France's greatest writers and philosophers, despite the controversy he attracted.

Where was Voltaire born?

Life. Voltaire was born on 21 November 1694 in Paris, France, the youngest of five children in a middle-class family. His father was François Arouet, a notary and minor treasury official; his mother was Marie Marguerite d'Aumart, from a noble family of Poitou province. Voltaire was educated by Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris ...

What is the name of the philosopher who wrote the book Candide ou l'Optimisme?

His frustrating experiences of recent years inspired his best-known work, "Candide, ou l'Optimisme" ( "Candide, or Optimism") of 1759, a satire on the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz and on religious and philosophical optimism in general. Voltaire returned to a hero's welcome in Paris in 1778, at the age of 83.

Where did Voltaire spend his second exile?

His second exile, from 1734 until 1749, was spent at the Château de Cirey (near Luneville in northeastern France). The Château was owned by the Marquis Florent-Claude du Châtelet and his wife, the intellectual Marquise Émilie du Châtelet (1706 - 1749), although Voltaire put some of his own money into the building's renovation.

What did Voltaire see in the French bourgeoisie?

Voltaire saw the French bourgeoisie as too small and ineffective, the aristocracy as parasitic and corrupt, the commoners as ignorant and superstitious, and the church as a static force useful only to provide backing for revolutionaries.

How many books did Voltaire write?

Voltaire was a prolific writer, and produced works in almost every literary form (plays, poetry, novels, essays, historical and scientific works, over 21,000 letters and over two thousand books and pamphlets).

What did the philosophers like himself think was the only way to bring about change?

He saw an enlightened monarch or absolutist (a benevolent despotism, similar to that advocated by Plato ), advised by philosophers like himself, as the only way to bring about necessary change, arguing that it was in the monarch's rational interest to improve the power and wealth of his subjects and kingdom.

Who was Voltaire?

François-Marie d’Arouet (1694–1778), better known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French writer and public activist who played a singular role in defining the eighteenth-century movement called the Enlightenment. At the center of his work was a new conception of philosophy and the philosopher that in several crucial respects influenced ...

Who was Voltaire first introduced to?

The chateau served as a reunion point for a wide range of intellectuals, and many believe that Voltaire was first introduced to natural philosophy generally, and to the work of Locke and the English Newtonians specifically, at Bolingbroke’s estate.

What was Voltaire's skepticism?

Voltaire’s skepticism descended directly from the neo-Pyrrhonian revival of the Renaissance, and owes a debt in particular to Montaigne, whose essays wedded the stance of doubt with the positive construction of a self grounded in philosophical skepticism. Pierre Bayle’s skepticism was equally influential, and what Voltaire shared with these forerunners, and what separated him from other strands of skepticism, such as the one manifest in Descartes, is the insistence upon the value of the skeptical position in its own right as a final and complete philosophical stance. Among the philosophical tendencies that Voltaire most deplored, in fact, were those that he associated most powerfully with Descartes who, he believed, began in skepticism but then left it behind in the name of some positive philosophical project designed to eradicate or resolve it. Such urges usually led to the production of what Voltaire liked to call “philosophical romances,” which is to say systematic accounts that overcome doubt by appealing to the imagination and its need for coherent explanations. Such explanations, Voltaire argued, are fictions, not philosophy, and the philosopher needs to recognize that very often the most philosophical explanation of all is to offer no explanation at all.

What was Voltaire's new identity?

This apparent victory in the Newton Wars of the 1730s and 1740s allowed Voltaire’s new philosophical identity to solidify. Especially crucial was the way that it allowed Voltaire’s outlaw status, which he had never fully repudiated, to be rehabilitated in the public mind as a necessary and heroic defense of philosophical truth against the enemies of error and prejudice. From this perspective, Voltaire’s critical stance could be reintegrated into traditional Old Regime society as a new kind of legitimate intellectual martyrdom. Since Voltaire also coupled his explicitly philosophical writings and polemics during the 1730s and 1740s with an equally extensive stream of plays, poems, stories, and narrative histories, many of which were orthogonal in both tone and content to the explicit campaigns of the Newton Wars, Voltaire was further able to reestablish his old identity as an Old Regime man of letters despite the scandals of these years. In 1745, Voltaire was named the Royal Historiographer of France, a title bestowed upon him as a result of his histories of Louis XIV and the Swedish King Charles II. This royal office also triggered the writing of arguably Voltaire’s most widely read and influential book, at least in the eighteenth century, Essais sur les moeurs et l’esprit des nations (1751), a pioneering work of universal history. The position also legitimated him as an officially sanctioned savant. In 1749, after the death of du Châtelet, Voltaire reinforced this impression by accepting an invitation to join the court of the young Frederick the Great in Prussia, a move that further assimilated him into the power structures of Old Regime society.

What was Voltaire's influence on the English period?

1.2 The English Period (1726–1729) Yet even if Voltaire was introduced to English philosophy in this way, its influence on his thought was most shaped by his brief exile in England between 1726–29. The occasion for his departure was an affair of honor. A very powerful aristocrat, the Duc de Rohan, accused Voltaire of defamation, ...

Where did Voltaire settle?

Rather than returning home to Paris and restoring his reputation, Voltaire instead settled in Geneva. When this austere Calvinist enclave proved completely unwelcoming, he took further steps toward independence by using his personal fortune to buy a chateau of his own in the hinterlands between France and Switzerland. Voltaire installed himself permanently at Ferney in early 1759, and from this date until his death in 1778 he made the chateau his permanent home and capital, at least in the minds of his intellectual allies, of the emerging French Enlightenment.

What was Voltaire's most influential book?

This royal office also triggered the writing of arguably Voltaire’s most widely read and influential book, at least in the eighteenth century, Essais sur les moeurs et l’esprit des nations (1751), a pioneering work of universal history.

What is Voltaire's last name?

Arouet adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille. Its origin is unclear. It is an anagram of AROVET LI, the Latinized spelling of his surname, Arouet, and the initial letters of le jeune ("the young"). According to a family tradition among the descendants of his sister, he was known as le petit volontaire ("determined little thing") as a child, and he resurrected a variant of the name in his adult life. The name also reverses the syllables of Airvault, his family's home town in the Poitou region.

What was Voltaire's view on religion?

Voltaire's critical views on religion led to his belief in separation of church and state and religious freedom, ideas that he had formed after his stay in England. In August 1736, Frederick the Great, then Crown Prince of Prussia and a great admirer of Voltaire, initiated a correspondence with him.

What happened to Voltaire in 1726?

In early 1726, the aristocratic chevalier de Rohan-Chabot taunted Voltaire about his change of name, and Voltaire retorted that his name would win the esteem of the world, while de Rohan would sully his own. The furious de Rohan arranged for his thugs to beat up Voltaire a few days later. Seeking redress, Voltaire challenged de Rohan to a duel, but the powerful de Rohan family arranged for Voltaire to be arrested and imprisoned without trial in the Bastille on 17 April 1726. Fearing indefinite imprisonment, Voltaire asked to be exiled to England as an alternative punishment, which the French authorities accepted. On 2 May, he was escorted from the Bastille to Calais and embarked for Britain.

How many books did Voltaire write?

He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets.

Why did Voltaire reject the Adam and Eve story?

According to William Cohen, like most other polygenists, Voltaire believed that because of their different origins, blacks did not entirely share the natural humanity of whites. According to David Allen Harvey, Voltaire often invoked racial differences as a means to attack religious orthodoxy, and the Biblical account of creation.

Where did Voltaire live after the Marquise died?

After the death of the Marquise in childbirth in September 1749, Voltaire briefly returned to Paris and in mid-1750 moved to Prussia at the invitation of Frederick the Great. The Prussian king (with the permission of Louis XV) made him a chamberlain in his household, appointed him to the Order of Merit, and gave him a salary of 20,000 French livres a year. He had rooms at Sanssouci and Charlottenburg Palace. Life went well for Voltaire at first, and in 1751 he completed Micromégas, a piece of science fiction involving ambassadors from another planet witnessing the follies of humankind. However, his relationship with Frederick began to deteriorate after he was accused of theft and forgery by a Jewish financier, Abraham Hirschel, who had invested in Saxon government bonds on behalf of Voltaire at a time when Frederick was involved in sensitive diplomatic negotiations with Saxony.

Where did Voltaire meet Frederick?

In September Voltaire and Frederick (now King) met for the first time in Moyland Castle near Cleves and in November Voltaire was Frederick's guest in Berlin for two weeks, followed by a meeting in September 1742 at Aix-la-Chapelle.

Voltaire Championed Freedom of Thought

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Voltaire's Writings Resulted in Imprisonment and Exile

Voltaire's Writings Were Progressive

Early Life

First Career and Early Romance

• After defying his father’s wishes that he become a lawyer, Voltaire pursued his first love, writing, which quickly sparked difficulties with the authorities because of his sometimes harsh attacks on the government and the Catholic Church. The result was a series of imprisonments and exiles. In 1713 Voltaire was briefly exiled to the Netherlands. In...

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Playwright and Government Critic

English Exile

Connections in Prussia

• After leaving school, Voltaire moved to Paris. He pretended to be working as an assistant to a notary, theoretically as a stepping stone into the legal profession. In reality, though, he was actually spending most of his time writing poetry. After a time, his father found out the truth and sent him away from Paris to study law in Caen, Normandy. Ev...

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Geneva, Paris, and Final Years

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