(quotes included from the Candide Appreciation by Andre Maurois)
“I have left abundance where there was want before. True—only by ruining myself. But a man could not ruin himself in a more decent cause.”
“I am tired of hearing it declared that twelve men sufficed to establish Christianity, and I want to prove to them that it only needs one to destroy it.”
“What was the vile thing? Religion? The Church? To be more exact, it was Superstition. He hounded it down because he had suffered from it and because he believed that bigotry makes men more unhappy than they need to be.”
"The only book that should be read is the great book of nature.”
“I’ve wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten our heart?”
~
“I am tired of hearing it declared that twelve men sufficed to establish Christianity, and I want to prove to them that it only needs one to destroy it.”
“What was the vile thing? Religion? The Church? To be more exact, it was Superstition. He hounded it down because he had suffered from it and because he believed that bigotry makes men more unhappy than they need to be.”
"The only book that should be read is the great book of nature.”
“I’ve wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten our heart?”
~
'“Do you believe that men have always slaughtered each other as they do today, that they’ve always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates and thieves, weak, fickle, cowardly, envious, greedy, drunken, miserly, ambitious, bloodthirsty, slanderous, lecherous, fanatical, hypocritical and foolish?”
“Do you believe that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they find them?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, then, if hawks have always had the same character, what makes you think men may have changed theirs?”'
“Do you believe that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they find them?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, then, if hawks have always had the same character, what makes you think men may have changed theirs?”'
