Candide

by Voltaire

"There can be no effect without a cause," modestly answered Candide; "the whole is necessarily concatenated and arranged for the best. It was

How could this beautiful cause produce in you an effect so abominable?"

"for private misfortunes make the general good, so that the more private misfortunes there are the greater is the general good."

"for the Fall and curse of man necessarily entered into the system of the best of worlds."

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?

"We must be mad, indeed, if that were the case," said the old man; "here we are all of one opinion, and we know not what you mean by monks."

mankind are so fond of roving, of making a figure in their own country, and of boasting of what they have seen in their travels, that the two happy ones resolved to be no longer so,

When we work at the sugar-canes, and the mill snatches hold of a finger, they cut off the hand; and when we attempt to run away, they cut off the leg; both cases have happened to me. This is the price at which you eat sugar in Europe.

Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.

there was very little virtue or happiness upon earth, except perhaps in El Dorado, where nobody could gain admittance.

Fools admire everything in an author of reputation. For my part, I read only to please myself. I like only that which serves my purpose."

but when I found that he doubted of everything, I concluded that I knew as much as he, and that I had no need of a guide to learn ignorance."

"it is noble to write as one thinks; this is the privilege of humanity. In

Plato observed a long while ago that those stomachs are not the best that reject all sorts of food." "But is there not a pleasure," said Candide, "in criticising everything, in pointing out faults where others see nothing but beauties?" "That is to say," replied Martin, "that there is some pleasure in having no pleasure."

"in what sort of scales your Pangloss would weigh the misfortunes of mankind and set a just estimate on their sorrows.

man was born to live either in a state of distracting inquietude or of lethargic disgust.

This quote is amazing .. خلق الانسان في كبد

three great evils—weariness, vice, and want."

was put there ut operaretur eum, that he might cultivate it; which shows that man was not born to be idle."