For the completely unmysterious reasons of Peter Keith, I ran into this Chesterfield quote the other day, which makes it clear that Chesterfield is the anti-Voltaire and vice versa:
Voltaire cannot help but lard* everything he writes, and that it would be better to suppress; since in the end one must not disturb the established order. Let each one think as he wants, or rather as he can, but let him not communicate his ideas, as soon as they are of a nature to be able to disturb the peace of society.
* "larder": not sure exactly what the nuance here is, but the gist is clear.
Chesterfield: Peace for our time!
Voltaire: The pen is mightier than the sword!
This is very on-brand for Chesterfield; Wikipedia tells me that in his most famous work, Letters to His Son, he wrote advice like, "However frivolous a company may be, still, while you are among them, do not show them, by your inattention, that you think them so; but rather take their tone, and conform in some degree to their weakness, instead of manifesting your contempt for them." Thus inspiring Selena's fave Samuel Johnson to quip that the letters taught "the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing-master."
Or as Groucho Marx would one day say, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Voltaire
Date: 2024-11-22 08:28 pm (UTC)For the completely unmysterious reasons of Peter Keith, I ran into this Chesterfield quote the other day, which makes it clear that Chesterfield is the anti-Voltaire and vice versa:
Voltaire cannot help but lard* everything he writes, and that it would be better to suppress; since in the end one must not disturb the established order. Let each one think as he wants, or rather as he can, but let him not communicate his ideas, as soon as they are of a nature to be able to disturb the peace of society.
* "larder": not sure exactly what the nuance here is, but the gist is clear.
Chesterfield: Peace for our time!
Voltaire: The pen is mightier than the sword!
This is very on-brand for Chesterfield; Wikipedia tells me that in his most famous work, Letters to His Son, he wrote advice like, "However frivolous a company may be, still, while you are among them, do not show them, by your inattention, that you think them so; but rather take their tone, and conform in some degree to their weakness, instead of manifesting your contempt for them." Thus inspiring Selena's fave Samuel Johnson to quip that the letters taught "the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing-master."
Or as Groucho Marx would one day say, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."