Some of the quotes from the eighteenth century French thinker Voltaire still strike a chord today. Here are a few: The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom. If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize. Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech. So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. From the following: Top 25 Quotes by Voltaire
Voltaire was a crank and a charlatan who make bucks by spouting nonsense for the poor and illiterate to lap up. He was further behind the times on issues of science, biology, race, and so than thinkers from the days of Greece and Rome were. Reading Mein Kampf, Mao ZeDong, or Alex Jones would be more enlightening and accurate to reality than anything this foolish idiot purported to have a say in.
Opinions such as Voltaire's are written into the American Constitution. The American independence/revolution and Voltaire both belong to the Age of Enlightenment and follow the same vein. Quotes from the American Founding Fathers are almost indistinguishable from those of Voltaire.