“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, quote from Candide
“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.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Optimism," said Cacambo, "What is that?" "Alas!" replied Candide, "It is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“You're a bitter man," said Candide.
That's because I've lived," said Martin.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asked Candide. "To drive us mad," replied Martin.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“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.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?'
Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“She blushed and so did he. She greeted him in a faltering voice, and he spoke to her without knowing what he was saying.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“When a man is in love, jealous, and just whipped by the Inquisition, he is no longer himself.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Come! you presence will either give me life or kill me with pleasure.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“You are very harsh.'
'I have seen the world.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Let us work without reasoning,' said Martin; 'it is the only way to make life endurable.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Fools admire everything in an author of reputation.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“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.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“It is love; love, the comfort of the human species, the preserver of the universe, the soul of all sentient beings, love, tender love.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide.
"That is because I know what life is," said Martin.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“All men are by nature free; you have therefore an undoubted liberty to depart whenever you please, but will have many and great difficulties to encounter in passing the frontiers.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“I hold firmly to my original views. After all I am a philosopher. ”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“He wanted to know how they prayed to God in El Dorado. "We do not pray to him at all," said the reverend sage. "We have nothing to ask of him. He has given us all we want, and we give him thanks continually.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Alas...I too have known love, that ruler of hearts, that soul of our soul: it's never brought me anything except one kiss and twenty kicks in the rump. How could such a beautiful cause produce such an abominable effect on you?”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Qui plus sait, plus se tait”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Cela est bien, repondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any expirienced in a town when it is under siege.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
“Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles.”
― Voltaire, quote from Candide
Voltaire
Born place: in Paris, France
Born date November 21, 1694
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“the eye were no more than sense organs. The brain was no more than a central switchboard, encased in bone and removed from the working surface of the body. It was the hands that were the working surface, the hands that felt and manipulated the universe. Human beings thought with their hands. It was their hands that were the answer of curiosity, that felt and pinched and turned and lifted and hefted. There were animals that had brains of respectable size, but they had no hands and that made all the difference.”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from Foundation's Edge
“Anyway, what was the use? Women's hearts were like those desks full of secret drawers that fit one inside another; you struggle with them, you break your fingernails, and at the bottom you find a withered flower, a little dust, or nothing at all!”
― Gustave Flaubert, quote from Sentimental Education
“In preparing for this ceremony," Kai said, setting the bouquet on the mantel behind him, "I did some research and learned that the word Alpha has held many meanings across history. Alpha can refer to the first of something," said Kai, "or the beginning of everything. It can be attributed to a particularly powerful or charismatic person, or it can signify the dominant leader in a pack of animals, most notably, of course, wolves." His serious expression tweaked briefly into a teasing smile. "It has meanings in chemistry, physics, and even astronomy, where it describes the brightest star in a constellation. But it seems clear that Ze’ev and Scarlet have created their own definition for the word, and their relationship has given this word a new meaning for all of us. Being an Alpha means that you’ll stand against all adversity to be with your mate. It means accepting each other, both for your strengths and your flaws. It means forging your own path to happiness and to love.”
― Marissa Meyer, quote from Stars Above
“I don’t want to be a widow, I don’t want Michael Bayning, and I don’t want you to joke about such things, you tactless clodpole!”
As all three of them stared at her openmouthed, Poppy leapt up and stalked away, her hands drawn into fists.
Bewildered by the immediate force of her fury—it was like being stung by a butterfly—Harry stared after her dumbly. After a moment, he asked the first coherent thought that came to him. “Did she just say she doesn’t want Bayning?”
“Yes,” Win said, a smile hovering on her lips. “That’s what she said. Go after her, Harry.”
Every cell in Harry’s body longed to comply. Except that he had the feeling of standing on the edge of a cliff, with one ill-chosen word likely to send him over. He gave Poppy’s sister a desperate glance. “What should I say?”
“Be honest with her about your feelings,” Win suggested.
A frown settled on Harry’s face as he considered that. “What’s my second option?”
― Lisa Kleypas, quote from Tempt Me at Twilight
“There are two kinds of pity. One, the weak and sentimental kind, which is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid as quickly as possible of the painful emotion aroused by the sight of another's unhappiness, that pity which is not compassion, but only an instinctive desire to fortify one's own soul agains the sufferings of another; and the other, the only one at counts, the unsentimental but creative kind, which knows what it is about and is determined to hold out, in patience and forbearance, to the very limit of its strength and even beyond.”
― Stefan Zweig, quote from Beware of Pity
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