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, Candide

“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, Candide

“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, 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

“It is man´s faith to live either on agonies of fear and turmoil or in the prostration of boredom.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Kissinger projects a strong impression of a man at home in the world and on top of his brief. But there are a number of occasions when it suits him to pose as a sort of Candide: naive, and ill-prepared for and easily unhorsed by events. No doubt this pose costs him something in point of self-esteem. It is a pose, furthermore, which he often adopts at precisely the time when the record shows him to be knowledgeable, and when knowledge or foreknowledge would also confront him with charges of responsibility or complicity.”
― Christopher Hitchens, The Trial of Henry Kissinger

“العالم الذي أتيت إليه مكان ممل إلى درجة لا تطاق، ولا سبيل إلى العيش فيه دون أن أعمل أيًا كان الدافع أو النتيجة المنشودة.”
― Voltaire

“The shrieks were coming from two quite naked girls, who were pursued by a pair of apes snapping at their bottoms. [...] So he now raises his double-barrelled Spanish rifle, fires and kills both apes. 'God be praised, my dear Calambo! I have delivered these two poor creatures from grave peril; if it was a sin to kill an Inquisitor and a Jesuit, I have made ample amends by saving the lives of two girls [...]'
He was about to continue, but words failed him when he saw the two girls throw their arms lovingly around the two apes and collapse in tears over their corpses, filling the air with the most pitiful lamentations. 'I was not expecting quite so much tenderness of heart,' he said at last to Cacambo, who replied: 'You've excelled yourself this time, Master; you have just despatched the two lovers of these young ladies.' '-Their lovers! Is it possible? You're making fun of me, Cacambo; how could anyone believe in such a thing?' - 'My dear Master,' retorted Cacambo, 'you are always astounished by everything; why do you find it so strange that in some countries it is apes who enjoy the favours of young ladies? After all, they are one-quarter human, just as I am one-quarter Spanish.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Je ne lis que pour moi; je n'aime que ce qui est à mon usage.”
― François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire

“Everything is not as good as in El-Dorado; but everything is not so bad.”
― Voltaire

“ العمل هو الطريقة الوحيدة لجعل الحياة محتملة”
― Voltaire

“The Dutch fetishes who converted me tell me every Sunday that the blacks and whites are all children of one father, whom they call Adam. As for me, I do not understand anything of genealogies; but if what these preachers say is true, we are all second cousins; and you must allow that it is impossible to be worse treated by our relations than we are.”
― Voltaire

“Pangloss taught metaphysico-theologico-cosmo-codology. He could prove wonderfully that there is no effect without a cause and that, in this best of all possible worlds, His Lordship the Baron's castle was the most beautiful of castles and Madam the best of all baronesses.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Just for fun, why not get each passenger to tell you the story of his life, and if there is one single one of them who hasn't often cursed the day he was born and hasn't often said to himself that he was the most unfortunate man alive, then you can throw me into the sea head first.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“They docked at Buenos Aires. Cunégonde, Captain Candide, and the old woman went to call on the Governor, Don Fernando d'Ibaraa y Figueora y Mascarenes y Lampourdos y Souza. This grandee had a pride to match his many names. He spoke to people with the most noble disdain, sticking his nose so far in the air, speaking in such a mercilessly loud voice, adopting so high and mighty a tone, and affecting so haughty a gait, that all who greeted him were also tempted to hit him.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“— Смятате ли — каза Кандид, — че хората винаги са се избивали едни други както днес? Че винаги са били лъжци, измамници, лукави, неблагодарни, разбойници, грабливи, слаби, непостоянни, подли, завистливи, лакоми, пияници, скъперници, честолюбиви, кръвожадни, клеветници, развратни, фанатични, лицемери и глупци?
— А вие вярвате ли — отвърна Мартен, — че ястребите винаги са яли гълъби, щом намерят гълъби?
— Да, несъмнено — каза Кандид.
— Ето — рече Мартен, — ако ястребите винаги са имали същия нрав, защо искате хората да са променили своя?
— О, има много голяма разлика — възрази Кандид, — защото свободната воля…
Разсъждавайки така, те пристигнаха в Бордо.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Les chagrins secrets sont encore plus cruels que les misères publiques.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Candide: "Çok acımasızsınız" dedi. Martin: "Hayatın ne olduğunu biliyorum da ondan" diye yanıtladı.”
― Voltaire

“Fods admire everything in and esteemed writer. I read only to please myself. I like only what suits me.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Robeck was a historical person who argued that loving life was ridiculous and sought to prove his point by drowning himself in 1739.”
― Michael Wood, Candide

“As I was doing this, I was also reading the book that Charlotte Clingstone had selected from Horace's library and left for me, Candide-- her cafe's namesake.

It was, unexpectedly, a screwball action comedy. The hapless main character, whose name was Candide, travelled with a band of companions from Europe to the New World and back. Along the way, characters were flogged, ship-wrecked, enslaved and nearly executed several times. There were earthquakes and tsunamis and missing body parts.

One of Candide's companions, Pangloss, whose name I recognized from the hundred-dollar adjective he inspired-- I'd never known the etymology-- insisted throughout that all their misfortunes were for the best, for they delivered the companions into situations that seemed, at first, pretty good. Until those situations, too, went to shit.

The story concluded on a small farm outside Istanbul, where Candide plunked a hoe into the dirt and declared his intention to retreat from adventure (and suffering) and simply tend his garden.

The way the author told it-- the book was written in 1959-- it was clear I was supposed to think Candide had finally discovered something important.”
― Robin Sloan, Sourdough

“Candide was an optimist, but you're a pessoptimist."
"That fact," I repsonded, "Is a virtue that, above all others, distinguishes my people."
"But you," he criticized again, "seem to be imitating Candide."
"Don't blame me for that. Blame our way of life that hasn't changed since Voltaire's day, except that El Dorado has now come to exist on this planet.”
― Emile Habiby