Quotes from work
Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs

Voltaire

Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs is an epistle in verse form written by Voltaire and published in 1770 . It is a letter to the anonymous writers and publishers of the Treatise of the Three Impostors. It contains one of the most famous Voltaire quotes, "If God hadn't existed, it would have been necessary to invent him." This quote itself was famously countered by the 19th-century Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin in his book God and the State with "If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him."

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”

Voltaire Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs

Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer.
Variant translation: If there was no God, It would be necessary to invent him.
Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs (10 November 1770)
For the background of the quote see this source: Yeh, Anthony (July 3, 2011). "What did Voltaire mean when he said that "if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him"?" http://archive.is/Rt53S. Quora. Archived from the original https://www.quora.com/What-did-Voltaire-mean-when-he-said-that-if-God-did-not-exist-it-would-be-necessary-to-invent-him on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
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