About the Author

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works.

Selected Quote

"Yet it is too soon. When I possess the crown, your faithful eyes
Shall be the witnesses of all my deeds. Stay in this porch, the priestesses to-day
Present Olympia to the powers divine: This day in secret she must expiate,
Sins which are even to herself unknown. This day a better life I shall begin.
O! dear Olympia, may you never know
The heinous crime that''s hardly yet effaced,
To whom your birth you owe, what blood I''ve shed."