Voltaire Quotes
It is a noble thing to make ingrates.
When effective leaders do great things for their society which benefits as a result, there are usually some ingrates who will complain about the ruler or leader. When President William Clinton created a balanced budget and at the same time created more jobs than any other President in history, all with excellent growth rates and very low inflation, there were still those who complained about Clinton. The very successful rulers or politicians tend to produce what Voltaire called “ingrates”, but the leader’s behavior that produced the ingrate was noble. See Alexander the Great {632232} who seems to have first uttered this principle.
Voltaire, 1694-1778, (Francois-Marie Arouet), French Historian & Dramatist, Quoted in S.A. Bent, Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887
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His army had been so successful that many of his men had all the riches they ever dreamed of and great glory as well. Some just wanted to slow down and enjoy the conquered lands where they had been received very cordially as Alexander’s “occupation” was much more benign than the Asian rulers had been. So some of Alexander’s men were critical of Alexander and in effect, Alexander said that the complaints are what a successful king should expect after so much success and popularity. This quotation was inscribed in Latin on the town-hall of Zittau, in Saxony during the reign of Frederick The Great. Politicians have been comforted by Alexander’s quotation even to modern times. Also, see {632232} for Voltaire’s version of Alexander’s statement.
- Born: November 21, 1694
- Died: May 30, 1778
- Nationality: French
- Profession: Writer, Philosopher
François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire (/vɒlˈtɛər, voʊl-/; also US: /vɔːl-/; French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity—especially the Roman Catholic Church—as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state.
