French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, and polemicist who wielded wit and reason as weapons against religious intolerance, judicial torture, and arbitrary power — whose Candide (1759) remains the most devastating satire of optimism ever written, and whose campaign for the victims of religious persecution helped establish the modern concept of civil liberties.
Voltaire was imprisoned twice, exiled three times, and had his books burned in several countries. He responded each time by writing more books. For sixty years he was the most dangerous writer in Europe — not because he commanded armies but because he made powerful people look stupid.