Free Republic

Are you familiar with Candide - Voltaire’s satirical treatise on the foolhardiness of perpetual optimism at the expense of reality?The truth is, we really can’t afford much more optimism in the Age of Obama. There comes a point when not allowing reality to intrude on your version of the world, when preferring the unfounded optimism of Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss borders on absolute delusion. It seems our own Dr. Krauthammer - a Doctor of Psychiatry not Philosophy – agrees. He has diagnosed our semi-retired President as suffering from just that: “The image of a man in denial on the verge of delusion....

The writings of the egoist Voltaire did more for liberation than those of the loving Rousseau did for brotherhood. - Alexander Herzen, From the Other Shore.ADMIRALS It is good, from time to time, to kill an admiral, in order to encourage the others. - Voltaire, Candide, 1759. ADVERSITY A man is on earth like a soldier at his post. - Voltaire, Ingenous, 1767. He struggled; he called to his aid philosophy, which had always helped him; he derived from it only enlightenment and no relief. Duty, gratitude, sovereign majesty violated: these presented themselves to his eyes like avenging gods; he...