Voltaire 1694 – 1778

Francois-Marie Arouet, known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit and his advocacy of civil liberties. He authored more than seventy works across virtually every literary form, including the satirical novella Candide and the Philosophical Dictionary. He was a fierce critic of religious dogma, absolute monarchy, and clerical authority, and a defender of freedom of speech, religious tolerance, and the separation of church and state. His correspondence comprises some twenty thousand letters, and his ideas profoundly shaped the French Revolution and modern liberal political thought. He spent much of his life in exile or near-exile due to his outspoken criticism of authority.