All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunégonde, if you hadn’t been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn’t traveled across America on foot, if you hadn’t given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn’t lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn’t be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios.

Tous les événements sont enchaînés dans le meilleur des mondes possibles; car enfin si vous n'aviez pas été chassé d'un beau château à grands coups de pied dans le derrière pour l'amour de mademoiselle Cunégonde, si vous n'aviez pas été mis à l'inquisition, si vous n'aviez pas couru l'Amérique à pied, si vous n'aviez pas donné un bon coup d'épée au baron, si vous n'aviez pas perdu tous vos moutons du bon pays d'Eldorado, vous ne mangeriez pas ici des cédrats confits et des pistaches.

Voltaire

Candide

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Topic

Interconnectedness of all things

Speaker

Pangloss

Author

Voltaire

Source

Candide

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Language

French

Time

1759 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Occupation

Philosopher Writer

From

France Europe

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 30.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 30.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Voltaire

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

Voltaire

Candide

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More information about this quote
Topic
Problem of evil

Author

Voltaire
Source
Candide
Medium
Novel
Genre
Satire
Statement Type
Question
Language
French
Time
1759 1750s 18th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 6.

Another quote from the 1750s

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.

Adam Smith

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

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More information about this quote
Topic
Human needs Character

Author

Adam Smith
Source
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Genre
Economic literature Philosophical literature
Language
English
Time
1759 1750s 18th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London: Andrew Millar/Edinburgh: Alexander Kincaid and J. Bell, 1759, pt. 3, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, edited by Ryan Patrick Hanley. Penguin Books, 2009, pt. 3, ch. 2.

Another quote about Interconnectedness of all things

Everything that lives,
Lives not alone, nor for itself.

William Blake

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More information about this quote
Topic
Interconnectedness of all things Nature of life Life

Author

William Blake
Source
The Book of Thel
Medium
Poem
Language
English
Time
1789 1780s 18th century
Authentication Score 1
Original Citation

Blake, William. The Book of Thel. London, c. 1789.

Current Citation

Blake, William. "The Book of Thel." Blake: Poems, edited by Peter Washington. Everyman's Library, 1994.

Another quote from Age of Enlightenment

No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan

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More information about this quote
Topic
State of nature Barbarism Civilization

Author

Thomas Hobbes
Source
Leviathan
Genre
Political literature Philosophical literature
Language
English
Time
1651 1650s 17th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. London: Andrew Crooke, 1651, pt. 1, ch. 13.

Current Citation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, edited by Christopher Brooke. Penguin Classics, 2017, pt. 1, ch. 13.

Another quote from Candide

I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?

Voltaire

Candide

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More information about this quote
Topic
Love of life

Author

Voltaire
Source
Candide
Medium
Novel
Genre
Satire
Language
French
Time
1759 1750s 18th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 12.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 12.