Quotes from Voltaire, Candide

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.

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.

had no need of a guide to learn ignorance

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

All is for the best in the best of all possible ways.