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To hold a pen is to be at war.

Qui plume a, guerre a.

Original text (French)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Letter to Jeanne-Grâce Bosc du Bouchet, comtesse d'Argental (4 October 1748) | This remark also appears in a letter to Marie-Louise Denis (22 May 1752): To hold a pen is to be at war. This world is one vast temple consecrated to discord [Qui plume a, guerre a. Ce monde est un vaste temple dédié à la discorde].

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War

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Voltaire (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.