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Key points
- The phrase, cultivate your own garden, is widely misunderstood.
- It is best understood as meaning not to neglect your garden.
- The author lived an engaged public life.
“Cultivate your own garden” is a popular phrase lifted from the 18th-century writer and philosopher Voltaire. The aphorism has taken on several shades of meaning that have come down to this today: instead of trying to make the world better, tend to your own life. Don’t try to change the world; instead, focus on things most close to you. The self, home, and family are the only gardens you can reasonably hope to change. Beyond the hedge is chaos and heartbreak. One blogger summarizes Voltaire’s advice: “This means that instead of trying to change the world or worrying about the problems of others, you should focus on tending to your own life and finding joy in simple pleasures.”
That Voltaire had something else in mind can be gleaned from his biography. Far from the self-centered life that the saying seems to urge, he was an engaged citizen who often took personal risks to help others, even on behalf of those he didn’t know. Through his writing, he challenged the French court’s tyranny and the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church. He exposed miscarriages of justice by the nobility and helped put an end to executions for blasphemy. Voltaire also campaigned against torture and organized a group of Protestant refugees in a dominantly Catholic country by supplying them with venture capital so they could begin what turned out to be a successful watch factory.
Voltaire witnessed the tyranny of the ancient regime and religious persecution and spoke out in defense of their victims. Although he encouraged people to take care of their own gardens, he didn’t intend for a person to turn their back on the world, for he knew that gates are no protection against oppression. Public and political events breach garden gates and palace walls. In contemporary terms, you can’t enjoy your backyard when the air is polluted.
How the 18th-century French philosopher’s aphorism is understood depends on whether the stress is put on “cultivate” or “your own.” If it is the former, it means “don’t neglect what is closest to you,” while the latter means “pay attention only to what is closest to you.”
Voltaire’s phrase is best understood as, "Cultivate your own garden; this is the place where your heart is. But don’t neglect the wider world. It, too, needs your attention." Gates and walls can only offer limited security. Sometimes, a person must leave its confines unless it becomes a prison. The goodness found in a garden can be sustained only if the environment surrounding it is also good.
