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Before he wrote Candide, Voltaire helped pioneer science fiction. For more from Cory Gross, check out Voyages Extraordinaires.

“For his part, Voltaire studied Newtonian optics and gravitation and popularized these ideas in Elements of Newton’s Philosophy.

These were among the few truly happy years that Voltaire enjoyed. An inability to keep his mouth shut resulted in countless, inevitable exiles and trials. Before Château de Cirey he had spent several years in exile in England. Afterwards he fell in and out of favour with Frederick the Great, was welcomed to and forced out of Geneva, and only permitted to return to Paris when he was 83. This was his last trip. Voltaire never surrendered belief in God, declaring shortly before his passing “I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.” That last clause referenced the established Catholic Church, against which he fought for freedom of religion, resulting in a proclamation refusing to permit his burial in sacred ground. His friends managed to sneak him in anyway.”