Although Voltaire, like John Locke before him, was not what I would call a Voluntaryist, he was another voice of individual rights. His writings along with his sometimes friend, Rousseau’s, would help inspire the French Revolution. Here are a couple…
Although Voltaire, like John Locke before him, was not what I would call a Voluntaryist, he was another voice of individual rights. His writings along with his sometimes friend, Rousseau’s, would help inspire the French Revolution. Here are a couple of quotes that show his opinion of self ownership; “Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.” and “Liberty is not and cannot be anything but the power of doing what we will.”
He says these things of freedom,
“Virtue supposes liberty, as the carrying of a burden supposes active force. Under coercion there is no virtue, and without virtue there is no religion. Make a slave of me, and I shall be no better for it.”
or
“…So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”
This quote brings to mind the analogy so many people in the Freedom Movement make, when they say that they were awakened by this or that. His influence is everywhere. A few years ago Judge Andrew Napolitano used one of Voltaire’s quotes as the title to one of his books, “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” Our movement is full of the spirit of Voltaire.
Many people in this country are stuck in the paradigms that the government or society has attempted to lock them into. Voltaire warned, “It is difficult to free fools from chains they revere.” In my experience, that is certainly true. The good news is that once someone is free from those chains, they seldom put them back on. We are a growing movement.
The final quote is concerning our opponents, in our case the government. This quote in that case has never been truer.
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God Granted It!”
The original article- https://steemit.com/freedom/@adamkokesh/satirizing-government-voltaire-forgotten-freedom-fighters
Sources-
Ancient and Modern Freethinkers, Bradlaugh
The Portable Voltaire, edited by Redman
Letters on England, Voltaire
