“Verses which do not teach men new and moving truths do not deserve to be read.”

“There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.”

“The only way to make men speak well of us is to do it.”

“If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.”

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

“People have declaimed against luxury for two thousand years, in verse and prose, and people have always delighted in it.”

“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?”