She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.
Let us work without reasoning,’ said Martin; ‘it is the only way to make life endurable.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.
Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.”, May 16, 1767)
It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy.
Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
on doit des égards aux vivants, on ne doit aux morts que la vérité.
God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions.
If God did not exist, He would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.
Morality is everywhere the same for all men, therefore it comes from God; sects differ, therefore they are the work of men.
S’il n’existait pas Dieu il faudrait l’inventer.” (If God did not exist he would have to be invented.)
The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.
Wisdom must yield to superstition’s rules,Who arms with bigot zeal the hand of fools.
You despise books; you whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of ambition, the pursuit of pleasure or indolence; but remember that all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.
We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one
The heart has its own reasons that reason can’t understand.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.”)
What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he’s certain he’ll go to heaven if he cuts your throat?
It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge.
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid – one must also be polite.
Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.
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.
It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.
I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.
What we find in books is like the fire in our hearths. We fetch it from our neighbors, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one’s fatherland is to wish evil to one’s neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.
Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.
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.
Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.
If they’re from the village, you take them to the inn. If they’re from the city, you treat them with respect when they are beautiful and throw them on the highway when they are dead.
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.
Our labour preserves us from three great evils — weariness, vice, and want.
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.
Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.
But for what purpose was the earth formed?” asked Candide. “To drive us mad,” replied Martin.
All our ancient history, as one of our wits remarked, is no more than accepted fiction.
It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
He wanted to know how they prayed to God in El Dorado. “We do not pray to him at all,” said the reverend sage. “We have nothing to ask of him. He has given us all we want, and we give him thanks continually.
A true god surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough… [or inspired] books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror.
Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
Speaking of Newton but also commenting more broadly on education and the Enlightenment: “I have seen a professor of mathematics only because he was great in his vocation, buried like a king who had done well by his subjects.
Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.
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.
The man who, in a fit of melancholy, kills himself today, would have wished to live had he waited a week.
Never having been able to succeed in the world, he took his revenge by speaking ill of it.
But how conceive a God supremely good/ Who heaps his favours on the sons he loves,/ Yet scatters evil with as large a hand?[Written after an earthquake in Lisbon killed over 15,000 people]
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning.
Quand celui à qui l’on parle ne comprend pas et celui qui parle ne se comprend pas, c’est de la métaphysiqueWhen he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.
I assert nothing, I content myself with believing that more is possible than people think.
One should always cite what one does not understand at all in the language one understands the least.
Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.
Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
The Jews are an ignorant and barbarous people, who have long united the most sordid avarice with the most detestable superstition and the most invincible hatred for every people by whom they are tolerated and enriched.
Ice-cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal.
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
It is dangerous to be right, when the government is wrong
Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all?
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciproc
All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.
It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.
I’ve decided to be happy because it’s good for my health.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Optimism,” said Cacambo, “What is that?” “Alas!” replied Candide, “It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.
If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?
One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion
What a pessimist you are!” exclaimed Candide.”That is because I know what life is,” said Martin.
What’s optimism? said Cacambo. Alas, said Candide, it is a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell.
Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives and few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.
An opportunity fordoing an injury happens a hundred times a day, hut for doing good not once a year,” says Zoroaster.
In cities where peace and the arts flourish, men are more consumed by jealousy, worry, and anxiety than they are in cities under the blight of a besieging army. Private sorrows are more bitter than public suffering.
If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.
It is not improbable that in hot countries, monkeys may have enslaved girls.
I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God grante
It is proved…that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for the best purpose.
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend- provided of course he really is dead.
The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.
Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
In the beginning God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.
But there must be some pleasure in condemning everything–in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.”You mean there is pleasure in having no pleasure.
Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. (The perfect is the enemy of the good.)
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.
It is fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions.
Imagine all contradictions, all possible incompatibilities–you will find them in the government, in the law-courts, in the churches, in the public shows of this droll nation.
We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.
By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
Having lived with kings, I have become a king in my own home.
Now, now my good man, this is no time to be making enemies.”(Voltaire on his deathbed in response to a priest asking him that he renounce Satan.)
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 expirienced in a town when it is under siege.
People will continue to commit atrocities as long as they believe in absurdities.
What is tolerance? It is a necessary consequence of humanity. We are all fallible, let us then pardon each other’s follies. This is the first principle of natural right.
And to every man has been assigned a good and an evil angel; one assisting him and the other annoying him, from his cradle to his coffin.
Often the prudent far from making their destinies succumb to them.
I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
Weakness on both sides is as we know the motto of all quarrels.
Ask a toad what is beauty? … a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head a large flat mouth a yellow belly and a brown back.
The first step my son which one makes in the world is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
All the known world excepting only savage nations is governed by books.
The secret of boring people lies in telling them everything.
Providence has given us hope and sleep as a compensation for the many cares of life.
If there had been a censorship of the press in Rome we should have had today neither Horace nor Juvenal nor the philosophical writings of Cicero.
The world embarrasses me and I cannot dream That this watch exists and has no watchmaker.
Doubt is not a pleasant state but certainty is a ridiculous one.
My prayer to God is a very short one “Oh Lord make my enemies ridiculous!” God has granted it.
England has forty-two religions and only two sauces.
Froth at the top dregs at bottom but the middle excellent.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.
Faith is believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.
He who thinks himself wise O heavens! is a great fool.
Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
If there were no God it would be necessary to invent him.
Pleasure is the object duty and the goal of all rational creatures.
God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.
If God made us in his image we have certainly returned the compliment.
The most beautiful of all emblems is that of God whom Timaeus of Locris describes under the image of “A circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Pleasure is the object duty and the goal of all rational creatures.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
The fate of a nation has often depended on the good or bad digestion of a prime minister.
Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
History is just the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Luck is a word devoid of sense nothing can exist without a cause.
Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of whom they know nothing.
When it is a question of money everybody is of the same religion.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
We never live but we are always in the expectation of living.
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day and of doing good once in a year.
The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important objects of philosophy.
One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.
We offer up prayers to God only because we have made Him after our own image. We treat Him like a Pasha or a Sultan who is capable of being exasperated and appeased.
God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked.
The infinitely little have pride infinitely great.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is.
The punishment of criminals should be of use when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.
Many are destined to reason wrongly others not to reason at all: and others to persecute those who do reason.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
I never was ruined but twice – once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one.
I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Never having been able to succeed in the world he took his revenge by speaking ill of it.
I die adoring God loving my friends not hating my enemies and detesting superstition.
The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything.
Men use thought only to justify their wrongdoings and speech only to conceal their thoughts.
There are truths that are not for all men nor for all times.
You (Pindar) who possessed the talent of speaking much without saying anything.
Work banishes those three great evils boredom vice and poverty.
Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
Can you really believe that a drop of urine is an infinity of monads, and that each of these has ideas, however obscure, of the universe as a whole?
To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.
We are all full of weakness and errors let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.
It is vain for the coward to flee death follows close behind it is only by defying it that the brave escape.
The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.
The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in.
Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.
The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.
When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Wherever there is a settled society, religion is necessary; the laws cover manifest crimes, and religion covers secret crimes.
Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.
Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.
Perfection is attained by slow degrees it requires the hand of time.
All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
Chance is a word void of sense nothing can exist without a cause.
God gave us the gift of life it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.
Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?
I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.
To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.
He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.
He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.
When men do not have healthy notions of the Divinity, false ideas supplant them, just as in bad times one uses counterfeit money when there is no good money.
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
Time, which alone makes the reputation of men, ends by making their defects respectable.
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.