Quote of the Day (Voltaire, on Absurdities and Atrocities)
“Formerly there were those who said: You believe
things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have
commanded you to believe them; go then and do what is unjust because we command
it. Such people show admirable reasoning. Truly, those who can make you believe
absurdities can make you commit atrocities. If the God-given understanding of your
mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not
resist a demand to do wrong to that God-given sense of justice in your heart.
As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will
follow as well.”—French author, humanist, rationalist, and satirist Voltaire (1694
- 1778), Questions sur les miracles (“Of Miracles”) (1765)
“Formerly there were those who said: You believe
things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have
commanded you to believe them; go then and do what is unjust because we command
it. Such people show admirable reasoning. Truly, those who can make you believe
absurdities can make you commit atrocities. If the God-given understanding of your
mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not
resist a demand to do wrong to that God-given sense of justice in your heart.
As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will
follow as well.”—French author, humanist, rationalist, and satirist Voltaire (1694
- 1778), Questions sur les miracles (“Of Miracles”) (1765)
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