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Definition
generally interpreted as an 18th century movement that further advanced the use of reason in the reappraisal of accepted ideas and social institutions — especially in Britain, France, Germany, and the American colonies- There isn't a consensus on when the Age of Enlightenment began.
- ...various religious cultures with their respective rights can coexist, on condition (and to the degree) that they respect the criteria of the Enlightenment culture and subordinate themselves to it.Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedeict XVI) -- Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures
- At this dark crossroads, mankind will at last unearth the Word and herald in a wondrous new age of enlightenment.Dan Brown -- The Lost Symbol
- The nineteenth century, he concluded, would be to the study of Mind what the eighteenth had been to the study of Matter — an Age of Enlightenment.Margaret Atwood -- Alias Grace
- He was a gigantic figure here in Scandinavia, marking the transition from the Baroque period to the Age of Enlightenment.Jostein Gaarder -- Sophie's World
- If Adams had any thoughts or feelings about the passing of the epochal eighteenth century—any observations on the Age of Enlightenment, the century of Johnson, Voltaire, the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the age of Pitt and Washington, the advent of the United States of America—or if he had any premonitions or words to the wise about the future of his country or of humankind, he committed none to paper.David McCullough -- John Adams
- He thought of Peter's faith that an age of enlightenment was imminent.Dan Brown -- The Lost Symbol
- The coming age of enlightenment.Dan Brown -- The Lost Symbol
- He lived in the Age of Enlightenment at the same time as great French thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau, and he traveled widely in Europe before returning to settle down in Edinburgh toward the end of his life.Jostein Gaarder -- Sophie's World
- A few days later, Adams was present for what was felt to be one of the high moments in the Age of Enlightenment when, at the Academy of Sciences, Voltaire and Franklin, like two aged actors, as Adams described them, embraced each other in the French manner, "hugging one another in their arms, and kissing each other's checks.David McCullough -- John Adams