Voltaire? Richard Francis Burton? Judith Krantz? Bennett Cerf? Norman Mailer? Jean Cocteau? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: A notorious anecdote claims that a prominent philosopher was once asked to join a group of libertines engaging in carnal behavior. The philosopher consented, and the group admired the performance. Yet, when asked to join the group again the response was:
“No, my friends. Once a philosopher; twice a pervert!”
This statement has been attributed to Voltaire (penname of François-Marie Arouet). I am skeptical because I have not seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match known to QI appeared in 1886 within volume ten of “The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night” (Arabian Nights) translated and annotated by the famous British explorer and writer Richard Francis Burton. This version of the anecdote was about two people and not a group. The phrase “Sage of Ferney” referred to Voltaire. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
. . . the popular anecdote of Voltaire and the Englishman who agreed upon an “experience” and found it far from satisfactory. A few days afterwards the latter informed the Sage of Ferney that he had tried it again and provoked the exclamation, “Once a philosopher: twice a sodomite!”
Voltaire died in 1778. The delay of more than one hundred years before the emergence of this story signals that its credibility is minimal.
The variability of this adage and anecdote make tracing difficult. Below is a snapshot summary showing members of this family of sayings together with dates. The general template is “Once an X; Twice a Y”, and the meanings of these statements differ:
1845: Une fois philosophe; deux fois joueur déterminé.
1845: Translation: Once a philosopher; twice a determined gambler.
1878: Once a philosopher, twice a fool.
1886: Once a philosopher: twice a sodomite.
1929: Once, a philosopher; twice, a beast.
1943: Once: a philosopher; twice: a pervert.
1951: Une fois, c’est être philosophe ; deux fois, c’est être … autre chose.
1951: Translation: Once is to be a philosopher; twice is to be … something else.
1963: Un fois philosophe; deux fois bougre.
1963: Translation: Once a philosopher; twice a bugger.
1974: Once a philosopher, twice a pederast.
1975: Once, a philosopher. Twice, a degenerate.
1978: Une fois, c’est être philosophe ; deux fois, c’est être pédéraste.
1978: Translation: Once is to be a philosopher; twice is to be a pederast.
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
In 1845 the journal “Bentley’s Miscellany” published a piece by “The Irish Whiskey-Drinker” which discussed losing money via a risky investment. The experience was not a deterrent, and the article contained a French adage that fit the template under examination:2
And I shall profit by my lesson, you may depend on it. “Une fois philosophe; deux fois joueur déterminé.”
Here is one possible rendering of this saying:
“Once a philosopher; twice a determined gambler.”
In 1878 Richard Francis Burton published “The Gold-Mines of Midian and the Ruined Midianite Cities”. Burton recounted an episode during which some of the boats of his traveling group were taken. The lesson he learned was illustrated with a saying that fit the template:3
“Once a philosopher, twice a fool,” says the Eastern proverb, equivalent to our “Once bitten, twice shy;” and we took care to place strong guards upon the next two boats which we towed.
In 1900 “The Book of Exposition” contained a chapter which reprinted material from Richard Francis Burton’s 1886 book “The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night”; thus, the saying achieved further distribution:4
. . . the popular anecdote of Voltaire and the Englishman who agreed upon an “experience,” and found it far from being satisfactory. A few days afterwards the latter informed the Sage of Ferney that he had tried it again, and provoked the exclamation, “Once a philosopher, twice a sodomite!”
In 1929 “Pulling Strings In China” by William Ferdinand Tyler contained the following passage:5
I had never seen an execution. A saying I had heard about experiencing certain nasty things came to my mind, ‘Once, a philosopher; twice, a beast.’
In 1943 the publisher Bennett Cerf authored a column in “The Saturday Review” which contained a version of the tale featuring Voltaire:6
Voltaire, it appears, was invited one night to participate in an orgy by a notoriously dissolute group of Parisians. He went, and gave such a satisfactory account of himself that the very next night he was asked to come again. “Ah no, my friends,” said Voltaire with a slight smile. “Once: a philosopher; twice: a pervert!”
Cerf included the same tale in his popular 1943 book “Try and Stop Me”.7
In 1951 the French diplomat and best-selling author Roger Peyrefitte published “Les Ambassades” (“The Embassies”) which included an expurgated version of the saying:8
J’ai voulu vous complaire et lui complaire, pour la rareté du fait, mais comme a dit un homme d’esprit, « une fois, c’est être philosophe ; deux fois, c’est être… autre chose ».
Here is one possible rendering of this passage:
I wanted to please you and please him, for the rarity of the event, but as a man of wit said, “once is to be a philosopher; twice is to be… something else.”
In 1962 a newspaper in Wilmington, Delaware printed an instance of the adage:9
I have been seasick not once but twice in spite of that noble line of Voltaire, “Once, a philosopher; twice, a pervert.”
In 1963 Scottish writer Compton Mackenzie published a volume of his autobiography titled “My Life and Times: Octave Two: 1891-1900” which contained an instance within a chapter set during 1899:10
I reminded him what Voltaire had said: un fois philosophe; deux fois bougre.
The phrase may be translated as:
Once a philosopher; twice a bugger.
In 1968 U.S. writer Norman Mailer published “Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968”. Mailer reported that a political activist used the saying:11
The other side had all the force, all the guns, all the power. They had everything but creative wit. So the underground would have to function on its wit, its creative sense of each new step. They must never repeat a tactic they had used before, no matter how successful. “Once a philosopher, twice a pervert,” he bawled out. And in the middle of the happy laughter which came back, he said, “Voltaire!” and they were happy again. It was as good a speech as he had ever made.
In 1974 Frank Brady released a biography of magazine publisher Hugh Hefner titled simply “Hefner” which included a concise version of the anecdote:12
It is reminiscent of Voltaire, who refused to accept a second invitation to a homosexual revel after distinguishing himself at his first encounter: “Once a philosopher, twice a pederast.”
In 1975 Gershon Legman published the second volume of “Rationale of the Dirty Joke”. Legman included a version of the anecdote which he indicated was circulating in New York in 1953:13
Voltaire is invited to one of the homosexual Saturday-night orgies at the palace of his German protector, Frederick the Great, but refuses to attend. Frederick makes him understand that he must take part in the orgies or leave Prussia, so Voltaire appears on Saturday night, and acquits himself honorably on the backside of a white-uniformed hussar. Frederick the Great is delighted, and invites Voltaire to come to Sans-Souci again the next Saturday night. “No, Your Majesty,” says Voltaire. “Once, a philosopher. Twice, a degenerate.” (N.Y. 1953.)
In 1978 Roger Peyrefitte authored “L’enfant de Cœur” (“Child of the Heart”) which included an instance. Here is the French followed by an English translation:14
« Une fois, c’est être philosophe ; deux fois, c’est être pédéraste. »
“Once is to be a philosopher; twice is to be a pederast.”
In 1994 “Lovers” by Judith Krantz contained the following dialog:15
“Obviously you don’t pay attention to that great warning, ‘Once a philosopher, twice a pervert.’”
“Who said that?”
“Jean Cocteau,” Archie answered quickly, counting on Byron not to check the facts.
In conclusion, the earliest evidence of this anecdote known to QI appeared in volume ten of “The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night” by Richard Francis Burton. Yet, Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) died more than a century before this date. This long delay makes this evidence very weak. QI conjectures that the variant anecdotes were derived directly or indirectly from Burton’s version. However, the taboo nature of the story suggests that it may have been communicated via non-published channels. Perhaps future researchers will discover superior evidence.
Image Notes: Illustration of Voltaire and Frederick II of Prussia created by Pierre Charles Baquoy circa 1800. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to George Mannes and Matt Levine whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to Garry Apgar and Edward M. Langille for their wonderful 2021 reference work “The Quotable Voltaire” which pointed to the anecdote in “The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night” by Richard Francis Burton.
- 1886, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Translated and Annotated by Richard F. Burton, Volume 10, Quote Page 214, Privately Printed by The Burton Club. (Letter in front matter is dated July 12, 1886) (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
- 1845, Bentley’s Miscellany, Volume 18, The Railway Queen by The Irish Whiskey-Drinker, Start Page 386, Quote Page 386, Richard Bentley, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1878, The Gold-Mines of Midian and the Ruined Midianite Cities: A Fortnight’s Tour in North-Western Arabia by Richard F. Burton, Chapter 4: Departure from Suez, Quote Page 114 and 115, C. Kegan Paul & Company, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1900, The Secrets of Oriental Sexuology: The Book of Exposition, Literally Translated from the Arabic by An English Bohemian, Chapter: A Bypath of Human Passion by Rich. F. Burton, Quote Page 230, Maison d’Editions Scientifiques, Paris. (Internet Archive; Verified with scans) link ↩︎
- 1929, Pulling Strings In China by William Ferdinand Tyler, Chapter 11: A Lull In Work, Quote Page 209, Constable & Company, London. (Internet Archive; Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1943 March 27, The Saturday Review, Trade Winds by Bennett Cerf, Start Page 20, Quote Page 21, Column 2, The Saturday Review Associates, New York. (Unz) ↩︎
- 1944, Try and Stop Me by Bennett Cerf, Quote Page 255, Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1951 Copyright, Les Ambassades (The Embassies), by Roger Peyrefitte, Chapter 4, Quote Page 216, Flammarion, Paris, France. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1962 September 5, Wilmington Morning News, This Bears Mention by Tom Malone, Quote Page 13, Column 1, Wilmington, Delaware. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1963, My Life and Times: Octave Two: 1891-1900 by Compton Mackenzie, Chapter: Sixteen Years Old 1899, Quote Page 255, Chatto & Windus, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1968, Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968 by Norman Mailer, Chapter 21, Quote Page 195, The World Publishing Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1974 Copyright, Hefner by Frank Brady, Chapter 1, Quote Page 20, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1975, Rationale of the Dirty Joke: Second Series by Gershon Legman, Volume 2, (Later editions titled: No Laughing Matter), Quote Page 151, Breaking Point Inc., New York. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1978 Copyright, L’enfant de Cœur (Child of the Heart) by Roger Peyrefitte, Chapter 13, Quote Page 272, Albin Michel, Paris, France. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1994 Copyright, Lovers by Judith Krantz, Chapter 6, Quote Page 124, Crown Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎