"People who believe in absurdities will eventually commit atrocities."
May 16, 1717 was the day that the French playwright and poet Voltaire ( born François-Marie Arouet in 1694) was imprisoned in the Bastille for insulting the government.
He was a young man at the time, and a relatively unknown writer. His father had encouraged him to become a lawyer, but Voltaire hated practicing law, so he spent all his time writing satirical poetry instead, poking fun at his political enemies, including the Duke of Orleans. When the Duke read one of the privately circulated poems, he had Voltaire thrown into prison for 11 months.
Voltaire used the opportunity to begin writing his first play, and when he got out of prison a year later, he produced a series of successful plays that made him one of the most popular writers in Europe. He spent the rest of his life in and out of exile from France, speaking out against political and religious repression.
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