Voltaire: the Enlightenment’s most fearless thinker

There are few thinkers from the Enlightenment who feel less like a museum exhibit and more like a figure still very much among us. Voltaire, if born three centuries later, wouldn’t be pacing the salons of Paris — he’d be trending on X, suspended from YouTube, and writing Substack essays at a speed that would make the average influencer sweat. Not because he courted controversy for sport, but because he understood — with surgical precision — the stakes of a society that cannot tolerate dissent.

He mocked kings, ridiculed priests, and exposed the fragility of those who rule not by reason, but by narrative. And for that, he was locked up, exiled, and censored — always with the same justification we hear now: to protect public order, or the common good, or decency, or the feelings of some favoured constituency. The excuses have changed costumes. The instinct remains the same.

Voltaire saw this clearly. He saw that power does not announce itself as tyranny. It arrives wearing moral language, talking of virtue and safety and solidarity. But the moment you are told what you may not say — especially under the banner of justice — you are no longer in a free society. You are in a polite theocracy, one where blasphemy is punished not for offending gods, but for offending group identities or institutional truths.

What made Voltaire dangerous wasn’t just what he said — it was how he said it. He understood that argument alone rarely topples dogma. Ridicule, however, can gut it clean. He turned sanctimony into farce, and in doing so, robbed it of its mystique. His gift was not simply to argue against bad ideas, but to expose their absurdity in such vivid colours that they collapsed under their own weight.

Voltaire in the age of digital heresy

This is precisely what makes his work feel so urgent now. Because we are not living through an age of deep debate. We are living through a new clerisy — one that hides behind screens instead of pulpits, and wields algorithms instead of scripture. The dogmas are different, but the demands are the same: repeat the creed, shame the unbeliever, suppress the question.

There was a time when liberalism meant defending your opponent’s right to speak. Now, too often, it means celebrating their deplatforming. Voltaire warned us: “Think for yourselves and allow others the privilege to do so too.” Today, this is a dangerous idea — not because it’s outdated, but because it cuts across the grain of a culture addicted to moral consensus.

Voltaire wasn’t a radical in the modern sense — he didn’t want to tear everything down. He wanted to carve out space for disagreement. And he knew that to do so, one must sometimes provoke, sometimes offend, and always question. Not because disagreement is inherently noble, but because certainty, when enforced by institutions, is a prelude to abuse.

What would Voltaire make of modern life?

He would see a culture saturated in euphemism and piety, where empathy is weaponised and offence traded like currency. He would notice how silence has become a mark of complicity, and how dissent is no longer debated, but punished. What many of us suspect but dare not say, he would declare outright: that we are not building a more open world, but a more fragile one — where feelings are sacred, truth is negotiable, and heretics are not burned with fire, but exiled through boycotts, bans, and digital silence.

Voltaire’s warning wasn’t just about tyrants. It was about the human tendency to build golden cages — comforting, righteous, and utterly suffocating. He understood that truth has no natural defenders. It must be fought for, often against the prevailing winds. And that fight is rarely polite.

He had little time for utopians. He didn’t believe the world could be perfected. He believed it could be made a little less cruel. A little more honest. And that required cultivating your garden, not dreaming of paradise, but pulling weeds where you find them. Especially the ones that bloom in your own backyard.

In a world choking on slogans, Voltaire still whispers something dangerously clear: that freedom, if it means anything, is the right to speak unwelcome truths. And that the most dangerous dogmas are not the ones we inherit, but the ones we create anew — convinced, as always, that this time, the censors are on the side of the good.

Notable quotes by Voltaire

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

“Think for yourselves and allow others the privilege to do so too.”

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”

“Common sense is not so common.”

FAQs: Voltaire and free speech today

Who was Voltaire?

Voltaire (1694–1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, and satirist known for his fierce defence of civil liberties, especially free speech and religious tolerance. Through wit and criticism, he challenged dogma, absolutism, and the abuses of church and state — earning both exile and enduring influence.

Why is Voltaire relevant in the digital age?

Because he understood how power cloaks itself in virtue, and how dissent — especially when framed as heresy — is often punished under the guise of protecting the public good. His insights mirror the dynamics of modern cancel culture, censorship, and institutional overreach.

Did Voltaire really say “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”?

This phrase was actually written by his biographer, Evelyn Beatrice Hall, as a summary of his views — but it captures the spirit of Voltaire’s lifelong defence of free expression.

What was Voltaire's main contribution to the Enlightenment?

Voltaire championed reason, satire, and civil liberties, especially freedom of religion and speech. He used wit to dismantle dogma and authoritarianism, helping lay the intellectual groundwork for modern liberal democracy.