Vulgar words in Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 115 ~ ~ ~
Molière, in his good pieces, is as superior to the pure but cold Terence, and to the droll Aristophanes, as to Dancourt the buffoon.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 397 ~ ~ ~
Men fattened on our substance cry to us: "Be persuaded that a she-ass has spoken; believe that a fish has swallowed a man and has given him up at the end of three days safe and sound on the shore; have no doubt that the God of the universe ordered one Jewish prophet to eat excrement (Ezekiel), and another prophet to buy two whores and to make with them sons of whoredom (Hosea).
~ ~ ~ Sentence 949 ~ ~ ~
Amid this frightful war Cromwell made love; he went, his Bible under his arm, to sleep with the wife of his major-general, Lambert.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,145 ~ ~ ~
I saw there that foreigners who are astonished that in the plays of the great Shakespeare a Roman senator plays the buffoon, and that a king appears on the stage drunk, are treated as little-minded.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,147 ~ ~ ~
The comparison would be more just if he were speaking of a painter who in a noble subject should introduce ridiculous grotesques, should paint Alexander the Great mounted on an ass in the battle of Arbela, and Darius' wife drinking at an inn with rapscallions.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,149 ~ ~ ~
The Italians, the French, the men of letters of all other countries, who have not spent some time in England, take him only for a clown, for a joker far inferior to Harlequin, for the most contemptible buffoon who has ever amused the populace.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,339 ~ ~ ~
Have I not to be convinced that a serpent spoke, that since then all men have been damned, that Balaam's she-ass also spoke very eloquently, and that the walls of Jericho fell at the sound of trumpets?"
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,649 ~ ~ ~
LOGOMACOS: What a blockhead!
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,655 ~ ~ ~
LOGOMACOS: These blockheads are troublesome.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 1,836 ~ ~ ~
But unfortunately the Comte de Dunois' prophetess was captured at the siege of Compiègne by a bastard of Vendôme, and Saintrailles' prophet was captured by Talbot.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,056 ~ ~ ~
If it be true that the bees are governed by a queen to whom all her subjects make love, that is a still more perfect government.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,221 ~ ~ ~
An ass cried _hihanus_, to signify _eamus_; a long procession, preceded by four fools with baubles and rattles, closed the performance.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,223 ~ ~ ~
A bad-tempered Swiss, more drunk maybe than those who played the rôles of ox and ass, came to words with them in Louvain; blows were given; the people wanted to hang the Swiss, who escaped with difficulty.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 2,227 ~ ~ ~
"If one believes that good works make for salvation, one finds oneself in a dungeon; if one laughs at a cock and an ass, one risks being hanged."