Candide Quotes

I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?.

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..

Optimism,” said Cacambo, “What is that?” “Alas!” replied Candide, “It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst..

You’re a bitter man,” said Candide.
That’s because I’ve lived,” said Martin.

Let us cultivate our garden..

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

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..

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

Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?’
Do you believe,’ said Martin, ‘that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?.

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

She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying..

When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself..

In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense..

Come! you presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure..

You are very harsh.’
‘I have seen the world.

Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom..

Let us work without reasoning,’ said Martin; ‘it is the only way to make life endurable..

And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.

Fools admire everything in an author of reputation..

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..

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

I hold firmly to my original views. After all I am a philosopher..

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..

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

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.

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?.

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..

Candide listened attentively and believed innocently; for he thought Miss Cunegonde extremely beautiful, though he never had the courage to tell her so..

The Baron was one of Westphalia’s most potent aristocrats, since his mansion boasted both a door and windows..

Surely you must be possessed by the devil,” said Candide.

 

The dry high spirits of this destroyer of optimism make most optimists look damp and depressed..

The Apology (of Socrates) is Plato’s version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man “who corrupted the young, did not believe in the gods, and created new deities”. “Apology” here has its earlier meaning (now usually expressed by the word “apologia”) of speaking in defense of a cause or of one’s beliefs or actions (from the Greek απολογία).

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..

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?.

I’ve wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten our heart?.

I am so satiated with the great number of detestable books with which we are inundated that I am reduced to punting at faro..

Fairest lady,” said Candide, “when a man is in love, jealous, and whipped by the Inquisition, he no longer knows what he’s doing..

Good God!” cried he, “I have killed my old master, my friend, my brother-in-law; I am the best man in the world, and yet I have already killed three men; and of these three two were priests..

I have been in several provinces. In some one-half of the people are fools, in others they are too cunning; in some they are weak and simple, in others they affect to be witty; in all, the principal occupation is love, the next is slander, and the third is talking nonsense..

There was never anything so gallant, so spruce, so brilliant, and so well disposed as the two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made music such as Hell itself had never heard. The cannons first of all laid flat about six thousand men on each side; the muskets swept away from this best of worlds nine or ten thousand ruffians who infested its surface. The bayonet was also a sufficient reason for the death of several thousands. The whole might amount to thirty thousand souls. Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery..

He vainly said that human will is free.