Enlightenment

Voltaire

1694–1778

Philosophe, born François-Marie Arouet

He defended speech with a ferocity the fake epigram only approximates. The real line kept here is about doubt, written to Frederick the Great’s circle: certainty, he thought, was the absurd condition.

In the canon

  1. Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.Letter to Frederick the Great

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