The Enlightenment philosopher François Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, had no qualms about making sharp, dismissive, and often scathing judgments against individuals, religions, cultures, and entire peoples, all in his typically ironic and biting style. Speaking of the intellectuals of the Académie française, he wrote that “Chapelain, Colletet, Cassaigne, Faret, Perrin, Cotin, our first academicians, were the disgrace of our nation, and their names have become so ridiculous that, if any writer had the misfortune of being called Chapelain or Cotin, he would be forced to change his name.”

When it came to French society, Voltaire shared the disdain for the provinces that many Parisians held. In his Treatise on Tolerance he wrote: “In Paris reason prevails over fanaticism, however great it may be, while in the provinces fanaticism almost always prevails over reason.” He did not limit his criticism to his own time but extended it to past societies as well. For example, he described Egyptian civilization as steeped in superstition, referring to its admirers as “worshippers of pyramid builders.”

In line with the antisemitism widespread at the time, Voltaire also launched several invectives against the Jews. He argued that it was not divine wrath that brought them to ruin in ancient times, but rather “their detestable politics, their ignorance of the arts, their coarseness.” He further wrote that they had always been hated because “they ridiculously hated other peoples” and showed no compassion, claiming their history lacked any sign of generosity or charity.

Voltaire’s hostility toward the Jews was not of Christian inspiration; on the contrary, among his favorite targets were the Catholic Church and its religious orders. He justified the suppression of the Jesuit order in France, writing that “having been intolerant and persecutors, they in turn were persecuted.” Of the Franciscans and Dominicans, he criticized what he called “monkish superstitions” and the evils caused by their spread.

Yet his opposition to Catholicism did not necessarily make him sympathetic to Protestants. In fact, he concluded one of his Letters on England, devoted to the Anglican Church, by writing: “[The Anglicans] are odious heretics, to be handed over to all the devils for burning, as Master François Rabelais says. That is why I do not meddle in their affairs.”

It is therefore not surprising that, by the end of his life, Voltaire had made more than a few enemies.