Nov 21, 1694 - May 30, 1778
French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade
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had no need of a guide to learn ignorance
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.
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.
If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones.
Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors.
It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.
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.
Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one's garden.
The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.
A man loved by a beautiful woman will always get out of trouble.
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.
Our character is composed of our ideas and our feelings: and, since it has been proved that we give ourselves neither feelings nor ideas, our character does not depend on us. If it did depend on us, there is nobody who would not be perfect. If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing
my soul is the mirror of the universe, and my body is its frame
The greatest consolation in life is to say what one thinks.
The man who leaves money to charity in his will is only giving away what no longer belongs to him
History is the study of the world's crime
To achieve a goal, a dream, a wish, you must plan it out for success!
All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn't lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios. - That is very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate o
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien. (The perfect is the enemy of the good.)
Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.
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.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us
History never repeats itself. Man always does.
It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational person.
In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.
Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.
Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.
All is but illusion and disaster.
I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.
