“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.”
Work
Candide, or Optimism (1759) written by Voltaire, the shining star of the French Enlightenment, is a biting, hilarious and frequently outrageous satire that pokes philosophical fun at -- of all things -- the doctrine of optimism. <p> Candide is a nave youth stubbornly adhering to the notion that "all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds," despite being cast into a flood of misfortunes and picaresque misadventures that take him around the world. <p> Whether Candide and optimism itself emerges unscathed in the end, hinges upon his own deceptively simple words: "let us cultivate our garden."
Quotes
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Voltaire
Canonical work source
“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.”
“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.”
“Let us work without reasoning,' said Martin; 'it is the only way to make life endurable.”
“He showed, in a few words, that it is not sufficient to throw together a few incidents that are to be met with in every romance, and that to dazzle the spectator the thought should be new, w...”
“A fondness for roving, for making a name for themselves in their onw country, and for boasting of what they had seen in their travels, was so strong in our two wanderers, that they resolved...”
“She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.”