Candide by Voltaire - Quotes

Candide is a short story written by Voltaire. Below are a few quotes from the book:

• 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.
• “Let us cultivate our garden.”
• Come! you presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure.
• Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.
• Secret griefs are more cruel than public calamities.
• It is demonstrable,’ said he, ‘that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for all being created for an end, all is necessarily for the best end.’
• A hundred times I was upon the point of killing myself; but still I loved life. This ridiculous foible is perhaps one of our most fatal characteristics; for is there anything more absurd than to wish to carry continually a burden which one can always throw down? to detest existence and yet to cling to one’s existence? in brief, to caress the serpent which devours us, till he has eaten our very heart?
• My friend, you see how perishable are the riches of this world.
• But for what end, then, has this world been formed?’ said Candide. ‘To plague us to death,’ answered Martin.