All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

It is only through timidity that states are lost.

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

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

History is the recital of facts represented as true. Fable, on the other hand, is the recital of facts represented as fiction.

The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.