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Voltaire -
Candide (1759)
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The malevolence of men revealed itself to his mind in all of its ugliness
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"Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst!
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In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.
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He was my equal in beauty, a paragon of grace and charm, sparkling with wit, and burning with love. I adored him to distraction, to the point of idolatry: I loved him as one can never love twice.
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Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
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Work keeps us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty.
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Work keeps away those three great evils: boredom, vice, and poverty.
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In this best of all possible worlds... everything is for the best.
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Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.
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Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
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Dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a thousand times less miserable than we are.
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If we do not exert the right of eating our neighbor, it is because we have other means of making good cheer
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Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.
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Do you think... that men have always massacred each other, as they do today? Have they always been liars, cheats, traitors, brigands, weak, flighty, cowardly, envious, gluttonous, drunken, grasping, and vicious, bloody, backbiting, debauched, fanatical, hypocritical, and silly?
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We are going to a new world... and no doubt it is there that everything is for the best; for it must be admitted that one might lament a little over the physical and moral happenings of our own world.
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What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?
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It was decided by the university of Coimbre that the sight of several persons being slowly burned in great ceremony is an infallible secret for preventing earthquakes.
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"I have no more than twenty acres of ground," he replied, "the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children; and our labor keeps off from us the three great evils - boredom, vice, and want."
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It is not a mistress I have lost but half of myself, a soul for which my soul seems to have been made.
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"But then to what end?" asked Candide, "was the world formed?" "To make us mad," said Martin.
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Los Padres have everything and the people have nothing; 'tis the masterpiece of reason and justice. For my part, I know nothing so divine as Los Padres who make war on Kings of Spain and Portugal and in Europe act as their confessors; who here kill Spaniards and at Madrid send them to Heaven.
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Nothing could be smarter, more splendid, more brilliant, better drawn up than two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as never been heard in hell.
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It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?
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If there were only one religion in England there would be danger of despotism, if there were two, they would cut each other's throats, but there are thirty, and they live in peace and happiness.
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Ignorant readers are apt to judge a writer by his reputation. For my part, I read only to please myself. I like nothing but what makes for my purpose.
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But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.
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It is noble to write as we think; it is the privilege of humanity.
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Private misfortunes are public benefits; so that the more private misfortunes there are, the greater is the general good.
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You know that these two nations [France and England] have been at war over a few acres of snow near Canada, and that they are spending on this fine struggle more than Canada itself is worth.
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Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.
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Quote of the day
The Constitution was the expression not only of a political faith, but also of political fears. It was wrought both as the organ of the national interest and as the bulwark of certain individual and local rights.
Herbert Croly
Voltaire
Creative Commons
Born:
November 21, 1694
Died:
May 30, 1778
(aged 83)
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