Voltaire (Meran Topalian)

Hello my name is François-Marie Arouet or most commonly known as Voltaire. I was born in Paris on February 20, 1694. I was the youngest of five children, 3 of which have survived, of François Arouet, a lawyer who was a minor treasury official. My mother Marie Marguerite d'Aumart came from a noble family of the province of Poitou. I was educated immensely by the Jesuits at the College Louis-le-Grand, where I learned Latin and Greek. If you know me, you would know that I was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher. I am famous for my wit, my attacks on the established Catholic Church, and my advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. I was a very versatile writer that produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. I wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. I was a very outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed me under very strict censorship laws of the time!