284 quotes
"Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst!
Candide (1759)
At fitful moments in our pain-racked life
The hand of pleasure wipes away our tears;
But pleasure passes like a fleeting shade,
And leaves a legacy of pain and loss.
All philosophical sects have run aground on the reef of moral and physical ill. It only remains for us to confess that God, having acted for the best, had not been able to do better.
Dictionnaire philosophique (1785)
Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the frontiers to be destroyed: when the object is to preserve them, it is no longer so.
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770)
Common sense is not so common.
If the bookseller happens to desire a privilege for his merchandize, whether he is selling Rabelais or the Fathers of the Church, the magistrate grants the privilege without answering for the contents of the book.
But nothing is more estimable than a physician who, having studied nature from his youth, knows the properties of the human body, the diseases which assail it, the remedies which will benefit it, exercises his art with caution, and pays equal attention to the rich and the poor.
Divorce is probably of nearly the same age as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770)
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770)
Les hommes vertueux ont seuls des amis.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)
We are rarely proud when we are alone.
Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
Love truth, but pardon error.
Use, do not abuse; as the wise man commands. I flee Epictetus and Petronius alike. Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
A people that sells its own children is more condemnable than the buyer; this commerce demonstrates our superiority; he who gives himself a master was born to have one.
Your religion, although it has some good points, such as worship of the great Being, and the necessity of being just and charitable, is otherwise nothing but a rehash of Judaism and a tedious collection of fairy tales.
Reason in The Philosophical Dictionary selected and translated by H.I. Woolf (1924)
It is very important to note that some 2,500 years ago at the least Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganges to learn geometry...But he would certainly not have undertaken such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins' science not been long established in Europe.
If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.
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.
Candide (1759)
We cannot wish for that we know not.
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.
Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764)