Candide Quotes

• I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley -- in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered -- or simply to sit here and do nothing?' That is a hard question,' said Candide.

  Voltaire

  Running, Cutting, Pirate

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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.

  Voltaire

  Optimistic, Optimism, Maintaining

  Francois Marie Arouet De Voltaire (2004). “Candide (Sparklesoup Classics)”, p.48, Sparklesoup LLC

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• All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

  Voltaire

  Art, Philosophy, Philosophical

  1759 Candide, ch.30.

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• It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.

  Voltaire

  Soul, Comfort, Tender Love

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

  Voltaire

  Mad, Purpose, Earth

  Voltaire (2003). “Candide”, p.75, Bantam Classics

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

  Voltaire

  Garden

  Voltaire (2015). “Candide”, p.123, Booklassic

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

  Voltaire

  Men, Bitter, Said

  "Candide, Or, Optimism". Book by Voltaire, 1759.

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• All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.

  Voltaire

  Men, Liberty, Encounters

  Voltaire (2016). “VOLTAIRE’S ROMANCES: 20+ Novels, Short Stories, Satires & Fables (Illustrated): Candide, Zadig, The Huron, Plato's Dream, Micromegas, The White Bull, The Princess of Babylon, The Sage and the Atheist, The Man of Forty Crowns, Bababec, Ancient Faith and Fable, The Study of Nature…”, p.70, e-artnow

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• What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin.

  Voltaire

  Life Is, Pessimist, Said

  Voltaire (1956). “Candide: or, Optimism”

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• We must cultivate our own garden.

  Voltaire

  Healing, Garden, Eden

  1759 Candide, ch.30.

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• My passion for gardening may strike some as selfish, or merely an act of resignation in the face of overwhelming problems that beset the world. It is neither. I have found that each garden is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society.

  Andrew Weil

  Beautiful, Selfish, Passion

  "One Simple Resolution: Gardening" by Dr. Andrew Weil, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 27, 2012.

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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."

  Voltaire

  Children, Evil, Boredom

  Voltaire (2017). “Candide (Français Anglais édition illustré): Candide (French English Edition illustrated)”, p.229, Clap Publishing, LLC.

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• Optimism and happiness are not the same thing, but they are becoming interchangeable, and it seemed to me that Voltaire's Candide gave me a way into something important happening in modern-day culture.

  Mark Ravenhill

  Optimism, Important, Way

  Source: voltairefoundation.wordpress.com

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

  Voltaire

  Dog, Monkeys, Miserable

  Voltaire (2006). “Candide: Or Optimism”, p.69, Yale University Press

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• We live in the best of all possible worlds

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Optimistic

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2008). “Discourse on Metaphysics and the Monadology”, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

  Lionel Trilling

  Humor, Littles, Weapons

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• All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden.

  Voltaire

  Garden, Feet, America

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• If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?

  Voltaire

  Optimistic, World, Ifs

  Voltaire (2016). “Candide”, p.18, Xist Publishing

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• I'm not Candide, nor Dr Pangloss, but we know that faith moves mountains.

  Daniel Libeskind

  Moving, Mountain, Drs

  "You've got to have faith". Interview with Jonathan Glancey, www.theguardian.com. August 4, 2004.

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

  Voltaire

  Work, Evil, Vices

  Voltaire (2016). “Candide”, p.97, Xist Publishing

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• Alas...I too have known love, that ruler of hearts, that soul of our soul: it's never brought me anything except one kiss and twenty kicks in the rump. How could such a beautiful cause produce such an abominable effect on you?

  Voltaire

  Beautiful, Heart, Kissing

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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?

  Voltaire

  People, Atheism, Monk

  Francois Voltaire (1977). “The Portable Voltaire”, p.192, Penguin

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

  Voltaire

  Taste, Suits, Enjoy

  Voltaire (1956). “Candide: or, Optimism”

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• When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?

  Voltaire

  Egypt, Doe, Boards

  Voltaire (2016). “Candide”, p.97, Xist Publishing

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• The guy's life drunk, I think, makes Candide look like a sourpuss. Does he even know that death exists?

  Jandy Nelson

  Witty, Thinking, Drunk

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