Candide Quotes

“Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Qui plus sait, plus se tait”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Just for the sake of amusement, ask each passenger to tell you his story, and if you find a single one who hasn’t often cursed his life, who hasn’t told himself he’s the most miserable man in the world, you can throw me overboard head first.”
― Candide, Candide

“A State can be no better than the citizens of which it is composed. Our labour now is not to mould States but make citizens.”
― voltaire, Candide

“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.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.”
― Voltaire, Candide, or, Optimism

“How many plays have been written in France?' Candide asked the abbe.

'Five or six thousand.'

'That's a lot,' said Candide. 'How many of them are good?'

'Fifteen or sixteen,' replied the abbe.

'That's a lot,' said Martin.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“All is for the best in the best of possible worlds.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“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, Candide

“I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Isn't there a pleasure in criticising everything and discovering faults where other men detect beauties?”
― Voltaire, Candide

“There is some pleasure in having no pleasure.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“It is demonstrable," said he, "that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance, the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles. The legs are visibly designed for stockings, accordingly we wear stockings. Stones were made to be hewn and to construct castles, therefore My Lord has a magnificent castle; for the greatest baron in the province ought to be the best lodged. Swine were intended to be eaten, therefore we eat pork all the year round: and they, who assert that everything is right, do not express themselves correctly; they should say that everything is best.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“I have seen so many extraordinary things that nothing seems extraordinary to me”
― Voltaire , Candide

“He showed, in a few words, that it is not sufficient to throw together a few incidents that are to be met with in every romance, and that to dazzle the spectator the thought should be new, without being farfetched; frequently sublime, but always natural; the author should have a thorough knowledge of the human heart and make it speak properly; he should be a complete poet, without showing an affectation of it in any of the characters of his piece; he should be a perfect master of his language, speak it with all its pruity and with the utmost harmony, and yet so as not to make the sense a slave to the rhyme. Whoever, added he, neglects any one of these rules, though he may write two or three tragedies with tolerable success, will never be reckoned in the number of good authors.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“What can be more absurd than choosing to carry a burden that one really wants to throw to the ground? To detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? To caress the serpent that devours us and hug him close to our bosoms tillhe has gnawed into our hearts?”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Men must have somewhat altered the course of nature; for they were not born wolves, yet they have become wolves. God did not give them twenty-four-pounders or bayonets, yet they have made themselves bayonets and guns to destroy each other. In the same category I place not only bankruptcies, but the law which carries off the bankrupts’ effects, so as to defraud their creditors.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“when man was put into the garden of eden, he was put there with the idea that he should work the land; and this proves that man was not born to be idle.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“A hundred times I was upon the point of killing myself; but still I loved life. This ridiculous foible is perhaps one of our most fatal characteristics; for is there anything more absurd than to wish to carry continually a burden which one can always throw down? to detest existence and yet to cling to one's existence? in brief, to caress the serpent which devours us, till he has eaten our very heart?”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Everywhere the weak execrate the powerful, before whom they cringe; and the powerful beat them like sheep whose wool and flesh they sell.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“had no need of a guide to learn ignorance”
― Voltaire, Candide

“As Candide went back to his farm, he reflected deeply on the Turk's remarks. He said to Pangloss and Martin: "That good old man seems to me to have made himself a life far preferable to that of the six Kings with whom we had the honor of having supper."
"Great eminence," said Pangloss, " is very dangerous, according to the report of all philosophers. For after all, Eglon, King of the Moabites, was assassinated by Ehud; Absolom was hanged by his hair and pierced with three darts; King Naab son of Jeroboam was killed by Baasha..."
"I also know", said Candide, "that we must cultivate our garden."
"You are right," said Pangloss, "for when man was put in the Garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, to work; which proves that man was not born to rest."
"Let us work without reasoning," said Martin, "it is the only way to make life endurable."
All the little society entered into this laudable plan; each one began to exercise his talents. The little piece of land produced much. True, Cunégonde was very ugly; but she became and excellent pastry cook; Paquette embroidered; the old woman took care of the linen. No one, not even Friar Giroflée, failed to perform some service; he was a very good carpenter, and even became an honorable man; and Pangloss sometimes said to Candide: "All events are linked together in the best of all possible worlds. for after all, if you had not been expelled from a fine castle with great kicks in the backside for love of Mademoiselle Cunégonde, if you had not been subjected to the Inquisition, if you had not traveled about America on foot, if you had not given the Baron a great blow with your sword, if you had not lost all your sheep from the good country of Eldorado, you would not be here eating candied citrons and pistachios."
"That is well said," replied Candide, "but we must cultivate our garden.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“But in this country it is necessary, now and then, to put one admiral to death in order to inspire the others to fight.”
― Voltaire, Candide, or, Optimism

“O che sciagura d'essere senza coglioni”
― Voltaire, Candide

“It is noble to write as one thinks; this is the privilege of humanity.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“man was born to live either in a state of distracting inquietude or of lethargic disgust.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“We are at the end of all our troubles, and at the beginning of happiness”
― Voltaire, Candide

“My dear young lady, when you are in love, and jealous, and have been flogged by the Inquisition, there's no knowing what you may do.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“فقال كانديد: «أعلم أيضا أنه يجب أن نزرع حديقتنا». وقال بانغلوس: «أنت محق: لأنهُ عندما وضِع الإنسان في جنة عدن، كان ذلك ليعمل.. مما يثبت أن الإنسان لم يولد للراحة». فقال مارتن: «فلنعمل بلا تفكير: هذه هي الوسيلة الوحيدة لجعل الحياة تُحتمل».”
― Voltaire, Candide