I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?

He broke from the tradition of narrating diplomatic and military events and emphasized customs social history and achievements in the arts and sciences. Fearing an indefinite prison sentence Voltaire suggested that he be exiled to England as an alternative punishment which the French authorities accepted. Nevertheless he continued to write producing essays and historical studies.

[clarification needed] As a satirical polemicist he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance religious dogma and the French institutions of his day. Voltaire was a versatile writer producing works in almost every literary form including plays poems novels essays and historical and scientific works. swa ma.