Scottish quote of the week: Voltaire

FRENCH Enlightenment writer, philosopher and historian Voltaire (1694 - 1778), who published more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets, was an outspoken supporter of social reform and civil liberties, including freedom of religion and expression and separation of church and state.

His ideas influenced both the French and American revolutions, but his own influences came in a large part from Scotland.

It was to the Scottish Enlightenment, led by David Hume and Adam Smith, and its flowering of philosophical thinking and questioning of the status quo in the quest for the practical humanist solutions to societal problems that have shaped modern Western society, that Voltaire was referring when he famously said:

“We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation”