Voltaire - Candide (1759)

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This is the happiest of all men, for he is superior to everything he possesses.

Voltaire
But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.

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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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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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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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Our labour preserves us from three great evils — weariness, vice, and want.

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I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.

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You're a bitter man," said Candide. That's because I've lived," said Martin.

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Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.

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When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.

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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 this country [England] it is useful from time to time to kill one admiral in order to encourage the others.

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Excellently observed", answered Candide; "but let us cultivate our garden.

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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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Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

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[Optimism] is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell.

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If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.

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Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.

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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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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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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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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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The malevolence of men revealed itself to his mind in all of its ugliness

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"Let us work without reasoning," said Martin; "it is the only way to make life endurable."

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Dogs, monkeys, and parrots are a thousand times less miserable than we are.

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