Great men have all been formed either before academies or independent of them.

If you have two religions in your land, the two will cut each other’s throats; but if you have thirty religions, they will dwell in peace

Quand celui à qui l'on parle ne comprend pas et celui qui parle ne se comprend pas, c'est de la métaphysique When he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.

Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.

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

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

I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley -- in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered -- or simply to sit here and do nothing?' That is a hard question,' said Candide.