21 ноября 1694 года родился Вольтер

“My name will win fame,” Francois Marie Arouet known to the world as Voltaire once said and was right. Tsar of poets, philosopher of peoples, historian of kings, Mercury of Europe, orator of his motherland… As well as great mocker, friend and teacher of rulers including Catherine the Great who was in correspondence with him for many years. Voltaire spent almost all his life in exile. When he finally returned to France shortly before death, young people full of enthusiasm carried his carriage on their hands through Paris. His legacy includes 50 volumes of books, including philosophical treatises and historical research. He would not agree with the views of other people, but was ready to give his life for the right of making them public. He would greet God, yet would not talk to Him assuring the public that if God did not exist, people should have invented Him. He would mock at everybody except for himself. Even the definition of philosophy was formulated by the author of Philosophical Dictionary as follows: “It is when the listener does not understand the speaker, while the speaker does not know what he/she means.” Expression honeymoon and the joke about genres which are all good except for dull ones are also his gifts to us. Once boating with King Friedrich III he saw that the boat was leaking and jumped out of it quickly. “How mortally you fear for your life,” the king laughed, “And I do not.” “It is clear,” Voltaire replied, “There are a lot of kings, while Voltaire is the only one.”