Anticipating Everything

The cobblestone streets of Paris in the early 18th century were alive with the chatter of merchants, nobles, and philosophers. The air was thick with the aroma of roasting chestnuts and the unmistakable scent of change. Somewhere amidst this bustling scene was François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, a man whose words would leave an indelible mark on history. A polymath, playwright, historian, and philosopher, Voltaire was a relentless critic of tyranny, injustice, and ignorance. His life was as tumultuous as the times he lived in, filled with sharp wit, controversy, exile, and an unyielding commitment to freedom of thought.

Born on November 21, 1694, in Paris, Voltaire was the youngest of five children. His father, François Arouet, was a stern notary who hoped his son would follow a sensible path in law. His mother, Marie Marguerite d’Aumart, came from a noble family, offering young François a glimpse into the world of privilege and sophistication. Yet, Voltaire’s early life was anything but easy. He lost his mother at seven, and his relationship with his father was fraught. Even as a child, Voltaire’s sharp tongue and irreverence set him apart. Sent to the prestigious Jesuit college Louis-le-Grand, he excelled in literature and Latin but chafed under the school’s rigid discipline. His teachers recognized his brilliance but often found themselves at the receiving end of his biting wit. “This boy will either be hanged or become a great man,” one remarked—a prophecy that danced dangerously close to fulfillment throughout Voltaire’s life.

By his late teens, Voltaire had decided that the life of a lawyer was not for him. He was drawn instead to the salons of Paris, where intellectuals and socialites gathered to debate art, politics, and philosophy. It was here that he adopted the pen name Voltaire, likely an anagram of his family name and the Latin phrase voluntas (“will”). The name suited him—a man of indomitable will and sharp resolve.

Voltaire’s wit made him a favorite in the salons, but it also made enemies of powerful people. In 1717, his mocking verses about the regent of France landed him in the Bastille for nearly a year. Far from breaking his spirit, imprisonment refined his resolve. During his confinement, he penned his first major work, Œdipe, a tragedy that earned him critical acclaim upon its release in 1718. But Voltaire was not content with mere literary success. He had a bone to pick with society’s sacred cows—religious dogma, aristocratic privilege, and the abuses of monarchy. This was an age when speaking out against the Church or the state could mean exile, imprisonment, or worse. Voltaire would face all three in his lifetime, yet his pen never faltered.

In 1726, after a quarrel with the Chevalier de Rohan, a nobleman who mocked Voltaire’s bourgeois origins, Voltaire was publicly humiliated and beaten by Rohan’s lackeys. When Voltaire sought justice, he was arrested and offered a choice: imprisonment or exile. He chose exile, and for three years, he lived in England—a turning point that profoundly shaped his worldview. In England, Voltaire immersed himself in the works of John Locke and Isaac Newton. He marveled at England’s constitutional monarchy, religious tolerance (relative to France, at least), and vibrant intellectual culture. He admired how writers like Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift wielded satire as a weapon against societal ills. This period birthed one of Voltaire’s most influential works, Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733), in which he praised England’s liberties while subtly criticizing France’s autocracy. Predictably, the book was banned in France, and Voltaire fled to avoid prosecution.

His wanderlust took him to the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia, where he enjoyed a brief but tumultuous friendship with the king. Though Frederick admired Voltaire’s wit and intellect, their egos clashed. Voltaire eventually left Prussia under a cloud of acrimony, but not before solidifying his reputation as Europe’s preeminent intellectual gadfly. Voltaire’s works spanned genres—plays, poems, essays, histories—but his philosophy was consistent: a fierce advocacy for reason, freedom, and justice. He famously declared, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” While this quote is often misattributed, it encapsulates Voltaire’s commitment to freedom of expression.

He was a staunch critic of the Catholic Church, not because he was an atheist (he wasn’t) but because he loathed the Church’s corruption and its role in perpetuating ignorance and oppression. His battle cry, Écrasez l’infâme! (“Crush the infamous thing!”), became a rallying call against religious dogma and intolerance. Voltaire’s *Candide* (1759) remains one of his most celebrated works—a biting satire of blind optimism and philosophical complacency. The novella follows Candide, an idealistic young man, as he endures a series of absurd and horrifying misfortunes. Through his misadventures, Voltaire skewers the idea that we live in “the best of all possible worlds,” a philosophy championed by the German thinker Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. With its wit, dark humor, and unflinching critique of human folly, *Candide* remains a masterpiece of Enlightenment literature.

By the 1750s, Voltaire had become both famous and infamous. Tiring of court intrigue and persecution, he purchased an estate in Ferney, near the French-Swiss border, where he could write and entertain visitors without fear of censorship. Ferney became a hub of Enlightenment thought, attracting luminaries like Benjamin Franklin, Catherine the Great, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Despite his relative isolation, Voltaire remained deeply engaged with the world’s injustices. When Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant, was wrongfully executed in 1762, Voltaire launched a relentless campaign to clear Calas’s name and expose the anti-Protestant bias in French courts. His efforts not only secured a posthumous pardon for Calas but also spurred broader calls for judicial reform.

Voltaire’s activism extended to his critiques of colonialism and slavery. In his Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of Nations (1756), he sought to present a global history that included non-European cultures, challenging the Eurocentric narratives of his time. Though not without his own biases, Voltaire’s writings laid the groundwork for more inclusive approaches to history and philosophy. Voltaire’s final years were marked by both triumph and exhaustion. In 1778, after decades in exile, he returned to Paris, where he was greeted like a hero. Crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the aging philosopher, and his play *Irene* was met with thunderous applause. But the frenzy of his return proved too much for his frail body. On May 30, 1778, Voltaire passed away, leaving behind a legacy that would ignite revolutions and reshape societies.

Voltaire’s death was as controversial as his life. Denied a Christian burial because of his scathing critiques of the Church, his friends smuggled his body to a monastery for interment. In 1791, during the French Revolution, his remains were moved to the Panthéon, a fitting resting place for a man who championed liberty, equality, and reason. Voltaire’s life reads like a testament to the power of ideas. He lived in an age when a single sentence could cost a person their freedom, yet he refused to stay silent. His relentless pursuit of truth and justice set the stage for the French Revolution and the democratic ideals that followed. Today, his words resonate in debates over free speech, secularism, and human rights.

But Voltaire was no saint. His wit could be cruel, and his ego immense. He was a product of his time, shaped by its prejudices and limitations. Yet, his flaws make him all the more human—a reminder that even the greatest minds are imperfect. In the end, Voltaire’s greatest legacy is his belief in the power of reason to illuminate the darkness. In an age of misinformation and polarization, his message feels as urgent as ever: question authority, speak truth to power, and never stop fighting for a more just world. As Voltaire himself might say, “It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.” And perhaps that’s why his name endures—not just as a philosopher, but as a beacon of courage and intellect in an often irrational world.