--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Voltaire was soon turned, with…" description: "\"“Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s encouragement, into a patron saint for the secular Russian aristocracy. Voltairianism, vaguely signifying r..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/pankaj-mishra-2875_quote_voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine_275717.jpg" --- # Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s encouragement… ![“Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s encouragement, into a patron saint for the secular Russian aristocracy. Voltairianism, vaguely signifying rationalism, scepticism and reformism, became her official ideology. Almost all of Voltaire was translated into Russian; no library was deemed…” quote by Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/pankaj-mishra-2875_quote_voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine_275717.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/pankaj-mishra-2875_quote_voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine_275717.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/pankaj-mishra-2875_quote_voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine_275717.jpg) > ““Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s encouragement, into a patron saint for the secular Russian aristocracy. Voltairianism, vaguely signifying rationalism, scepticism and reformism, became her official ideology. Almost all of Voltaire was translated into Russian; no library was deemed complete if it did not contain a collection of Voltaire’s works in the original French.”” [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Voltaire’s ideas were adopted by Russian elites as a state‑approved philosophy of reason and reform, shaping their cultural identity. **In simple terms:** Russian aristocracy embraced Voltaire as a rationalist ideology. Key Takeaway Recognize how imported ideas can legitimize power. Themes cultural adoption political ideology intellectual history Mood reflective analytical Type historical political When to use this quote - court patronage - translation projects - library collections - elite education Key Concepts rationalism reformism secularism Questions to Reflect On - How did Voltaire’s ideas influence Russian reforms? - What risks arise when a state endorses a single philosophy? A Different Perspective The adoption may have suppressed alternative voices. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Aristocracy Voltairianism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/aristocracy-voltairianism-2685441/) [Ideology Voltaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideology-voltaire-2685440/) [Voltaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/voltaire/) [Voltaire Translated](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/voltaire-translated-2685442/) [Voltaire Works](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/voltaire-works-2685443/) ## Related quotes > [“Voltaire also keenly endorsed Catherine of Russia’s plan to ‘preach tolerance with bayonets at the end of their rifles’ in Poland. Exhorting Catherine to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/voltaire-also-keenly-endorsed-catherine-of-russia-s-plan-to-preach/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/voltaire/think-for-yourself-and-let-others-enjoy-the-privilege-of-doing-so-too/) [Voltaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/voltaire/) > [“If I were king, I would redress an abuse which cuts back, as it were, one half of human kind. I would have women…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milie-du-ch-telet/if-i-were-king-i-would-redress-an-abuse-which-cuts-back-as-it-were/) [Émilie Du Châtelet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milie-du-ch-telet/) > [A jealous lover of human liberty, deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bakunin/a-jealous-lover-of-human-liberty-deeming-it-the-absolute-condition-of/) [Mikhail Bakunin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bakunin/) > [“I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, - astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc... It is very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/voltaire/i-am-convinced-that-everything-has-come-down-to-us-from-the-banks-of-2/) [Voltaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/voltaire/) > [“Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robyn-carr/life-is-thickly-sown-with-thorns-and-i-know-no-other-remedy-than-to/) [Robyn Carr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robyn-carr/) > [“They could not help loving anything that made them laugh. The Lisbon earthquake was “embarrassing to the physicists and humiliating to theologians” (Barbier). It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nancy-mitford/they-could-not-help-loving-anything-that-made-them-laugh-the-lisbon/) [Nancy Mitford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nancy-mitford/) > [“Since the time of Voltaire and two-chamber Government, which is at bottom simply distrust and personal self-examination, and gives the popular mind that bad…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stendhal/since-the-time-of-voltaire-and-two-chamber-government-which-is-at/) [Stendhal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stendhal/) > [O Voltaire! O humanity! O idiocy! There is something ticklish in "the truth," and in the SEARCH for the truth; and if man goes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/o-voltaire-o-humanity-o-idiocy-there-is-something-ticklish-in-the/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“If God is always on the side of the big battalions as Voltaire says, then, let us not waste our time with little detachments!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mehmet-murat-ildan/if-god-is-always-on-the-side-of-the-big-battalions-as-voltaire-says/) [Mehmet Murat ildan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mehmet-murat-ildan/) > [Optimism and happiness are not the same thing, but they are becoming interchangeable, and it seemed to me that Voltaire's Candide gave me a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-ravenhill/optimism-and-happiness-are-not-the-same-thing-but-they-are-becoming/) [Mark Ravenhill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-ravenhill/) > [Priests, kings, statesmen, soldiers, bankers and public functionaries of all sorts; policemen, jailers and hangmen; capitalists, usurers, businessmen and property-owners; lawyers, economists and politicians…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bakunin/priests-kings-statesmen-soldiers-bankers-and-public-functionaries-of/) [Mikhail Bakunin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bakunin/) > [Voltaire made up his mind to destroy the superstition of his time. He fought with every weapon that genius could devise or use. He…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-green-ingersoll/voltaire-made-up-his-mind-to-destroy-the-superstition-of-his-time-he/) [Robert Green Ingersoll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-green-ingersoll/) > [Voltaire! A name that excites the admiration of men, the malignity of priests. Pronounce that name in the presence of a clergyman, and you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-green-ingersoll/voltaire-a-name-that-excites-the-admiration-of-men-the-malignity-of/) [Robert Green Ingersoll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-green-ingersoll/) > [Voltaire was a smart cookie.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-perry/voltaire-was-a-smart-cookie/) [John Perry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-perry/) ## More by Pankaj Mishra > [“Nationalism has again become a seductive but treacherous antidote to an experience of disorder and meaninglessness: the unexpectedly rowdy anticlimax, in a densely populated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/nationalism-has-again-become-a-seductive-but-treacherous-antidote-to/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [I feel very privileged to get to read and write and not to have to do things that I don't like, and I don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/i-feel-very-privileged-to-get-to-read-and-write-and-not-to-have-to-do/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [There was great political uncertainty in South Asia at the time of the Buddha. The older small tribal societies were cracking up and gave…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/there-was-great-political-uncertainty-in-south-asia-at-the-time-of/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Buddhism resonated very powerfully with a lot of my preoccupations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/buddhism-resonated-very-powerfully-with-a-lot-of-my-preoccupations/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Our tolerance of the intolerable found a low threshold as early as the late 1950s with the grotesque excesses of McCarthyism, which destroyed so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/our-tolerance-of-the-intolerable-found-a-low-threshold-as-early-as/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/freedom-of-speech-doesn-t-guarantee-great-literature/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“As Keynes wrote, with devastating understatement, ‘The age of economic internationalism was not particularly successful in avoiding war.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/as-keynes-wrote-with-devastating-understatement-the-age-of-economic/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“Today, the belief in progress, necessary for life in a Godless universe, can no longer be sustained, except, perhaps, in the Silicon Valley mansions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/today-the-belief-in-progress-necessary-for-life-in-a-godless-universe/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [We are always boosting or trying to prop up the ego by fulfilling some desire or other, and always craving affirmation from the outside.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/we-are-always-boosting-or-trying-to-prop-up-the-ego-by-fulfilling/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [I don't think of myself as particularly earnest. I have long bouts of cynicism and skepticism. So much of my early life was full…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/i-don-t-think-of-myself-as-particularly-earnest-i-have-long-bouts-of/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“Marx reproduced medieval and Reformation millenarian expectations in his utopia of a classless, stateless society.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/marx-reproduced-medieval-and-reformation-millenarian-expectations-in/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“History, largely experienced previously as a series of natural disasters, could now be seen as a movement in which everyone could potentially enlist.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/history-largely-experienced-previously-as-a-series-of-natural/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Writers in the nineteenth century - people like George Eliot and Flaubert - were accustomed to addressing particular communities with which they shared not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/writers-in-the-nineteenth-century-people-like-george-eliot-and/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Most suffering is human-made and avoidable. It's mostly in your head.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/most-suffering-is-human-made-and-avoidable-it-s-mostly-in-your-head/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“equally eagerly from the nineteenth-century polymath Herbert Spencer, the first truly global thinker – who, after reading Darwin, coined the term ‘survival of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/equally-eagerly-from-the-nineteenth-century-polymath-herbert-spencer/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) [Explore all 147 Pankaj Mishra quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) ## More Voltaire quotes > [Voltaire was a smart cookie.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-perry/voltaire-was-a-smart-cookie/) [John Perry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-perry/) > [Voltaire! A name that excites the admiration of men, the malignity of priests. Pronounce that name in the presence of a clergyman, and you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-green-ingersoll/voltaire-a-name-that-excites-the-admiration-of-men-the-malignity-of/) [Robert Green Ingersoll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-green-ingersoll/) > [Voltaire made up his mind to destroy the superstition of his time. He fought with every weapon that genius could devise or use. He…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-green-ingersoll/voltaire-made-up-his-mind-to-destroy-the-superstition-of-his-time-he/) [Robert Green Ingersoll](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-green-ingersoll/) > [Priests, kings, statesmen, soldiers, bankers and public functionaries of all sorts; policemen, jailers and hangmen; capitalists, usurers, businessmen and property-owners; lawyers, economists and politicians…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bakunin/priests-kings-statesmen-soldiers-bankers-and-public-functionaries-of/) [Mikhail Bakunin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bakunin/) > [Optimism and happiness are not the same thing, but they are becoming interchangeable, and it seemed to me that Voltaire's Candide gave me a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-ravenhill/optimism-and-happiness-are-not-the-same-thing-but-they-are-becoming/) [Mark Ravenhill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-ravenhill/) > [“If God is always on the side of the big battalions as Voltaire says, then, let us not waste our time with little detachments!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mehmet-murat-ildan/if-god-is-always-on-the-side-of-the-big-battalions-as-voltaire-says/) [Mehmet Murat ildan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mehmet-murat-ildan/) > [O Voltaire! O humanity! O idiocy! There is something ticklish in "the truth," and in the SEARCH for the truth; and if man goes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/o-voltaire-o-humanity-o-idiocy-there-is-something-ticklish-in-the/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“Since the time of Voltaire and two-chamber Government, which is at bottom simply distrust and personal self-examination, and gives the popular mind that bad…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stendhal/since-the-time-of-voltaire-and-two-chamber-government-which-is-at/) [Stendhal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stendhal/) > [“They could not help loving anything that made them laugh. The Lisbon earthquake was “embarrassing to the physicists and humiliating to theologians” (Barbier). It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nancy-mitford/they-could-not-help-loving-anything-that-made-them-laugh-the-lisbon/) [Nancy Mitford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nancy-mitford/) > [“Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robyn-carr/life-is-thickly-sown-with-thorns-and-i-know-no-other-remedy-than-to/) [Robyn Carr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robyn-carr/) > [“I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, - astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc... It is very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/voltaire/i-am-convinced-that-everything-has-come-down-to-us-from-the-banks-of-2/) [Voltaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/voltaire/) > [A jealous lover of human liberty, deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-bakunin/a-jealous-lover-of-human-liberty-deeming-it-the-absolute-condition-of/) [Mikhail Bakunin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-bakunin/) > [“If I were king, I would redress an abuse which cuts back, as it were, one half of human kind. I would have women…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milie-du-ch-telet/if-i-were-king-i-would-redress-an-abuse-which-cuts-back-as-it-were/) [Émilie Du Châtelet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milie-du-ch-telet/) > [“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/voltaire/think-for-yourself-and-let-others-enjoy-the-privilege-of-doing-so-too/) [Voltaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/voltaire/) > [“Voltaire expected that within fifty years of his lifetime there would not be one Bible in the world. His house is now a distribution…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/corrie-ten-boom/voltaire-expected-that-within-fifty-years-of-his-lifetime-there-would/) [Corrie Ten Boom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/corrie-ten-boom/) [Browse all 95 Voltaire quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/voltaire/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s encouragement, into a patron saint for the secular Russian aristocracy. Voltairianism, vaguely signifying rationalism, scepticism and reformism, became her official ideology. Almost all of Voltaire was translated into Russian; no library was deemed complete if it did not contain a collection of Voltaire’s works in the original French.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pankaj Mishra" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine-s-encouragement-into-a-patron/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Voltaire" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine-s-encouragement-into-a-patron/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/pankaj-mishra-2875_quote_voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine_275717.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/pankaj-mishra-2875_quote_voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine_275717.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/786/pankaj-mishra-2875_quote_voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine_275717.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s encouragement, into a patron saint for the secular Russian…” — Pankaj Mishra", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Pankaj Mishra", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine-s-encouragement-into-a-patron/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine-s-encouragement-into-a-patron/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```