…it having been decided by the University of Coimbra that burning a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret for preventing earthquakes.
Candide, page 28.
This sentence is referring to the earthquake in Lisbon which occurs in Voltaire’s satire (it was also a real event). As it is a satire, I can see it being funny on purpose; however this was written in the 1700s so I can’t tell if Voltaire is being serious or is poking fun… Nonetheless this amused me!
(via keeping-it-classy)
Heh. Whenever there’s any doubt as to whether Voltaire is poking fun, it can be safely assumed he is. I should really re-read Candide one of these days… (My favourite joke is still the one where he refers to Canada as ‘a few acres of snow’).
