"The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination."

"The most beautiful of all emblems is that of God whom Timaeus of Locris describes under the image of 'A circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.'"

"Prejudices are what fools use for reason."

"The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture, their amphitheaters, for wild beasts to fight in."

"God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked."

"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities."

"He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead."

"When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics."

"There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times."

"The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it."

"It is proved...that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for the best purpose."

"Had no need of a guide to learn ignorance."

"Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes."

"Pleasure is the object duty and the goal of all rational creatures."

"The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great."

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices."

"We all look for happiness, but without knowing where to find it: like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one."

"All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women."

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

"Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors."

"It is fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions."

"Never having been able to succeed in the world, he took his revenge by speaking ill of it."

"History is just the portrayal of crimes and misfortunes."

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

"It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind."

"In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation."

"Answer me, you who believe that animals are only machines. Has nature arranged for this animal to have all the machinery of feelings only in order for it not to have any at all?"

"It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode."

"S'il n'existait pas Dieu il faudrait l'inventer. (If God did not exist he would have to be invented.)"

"All our ancient history, as one of our wits remarked, is no more than accepted fiction."

"Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men."

"It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape."

"Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds."

"The best is the enemy of the good."

"I never was ruined but twice - once when I lost a lawsuit and once when I gained one."

"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do."

"Ask a toad what is beauty? ... a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head a large flat mouth a yellow belly and a brown back."

"Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it."

"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."

"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation."

"It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions."

"Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game."

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

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."

"This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it."

"Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world."

"Can you really believe that a drop of urine is an infinity of monads, and that each of these has ideas, however obscure, of the universe as a whole?"

"Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals."

"If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him."

"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."