Think Less, Garden More

What a surprising amount of humor!

In Candide or The Optimist, Voltaire follows the life of the good Candide who is indoctrinated at a very young age by his teacher with the idea that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". Candide struggles with this philosophy as he is forced to endure excruciating hardships one after the other.



Through a number of chaotic events, the plot unravels as Candide travels through Europe and South America. I was shocked to discover that this book was published in 1759. Not because of the writing style or events, but because of the wildly timeless satirical tone. Don't get me wrong, Candide is grappling with many dark and twisted ideas:

"A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts; is anything more stupid than choosing to carry a burden that really one wants to cast on the ground? to hold existence in horror, and yet to cling to it? to fondle the serpent which devours us till it has eaten out our heart? —In the countries through which I have been forced to wander, in the taverns where I have had to work, I have seen a vast number of people who hated their existence; but I never saw more than a dozen who deliberately put an end to their own misery."

The book surprisingly ended on the most satisfying notes of purity. Candide and his crew only find solace and resolution once they take to the land and begin to farm it:

"You are perfectly right, said Pangloss; for when man was put into the garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, so that he should work it; this proves that man was not born to take his ease.

Let’s work without speculating, said Martin; it’s the only way of rendering life bearable. The whole little group entered into this laudable scheme; each one began to exercise his talents. The little plot yielded fine crops . . . and Pangloss sometimes used to say to Candide:

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.

That is very well put, said Candide, but we must go and work our garden."

Sage advice shines through...Think less, garden more.

To start reading Candide RIGHT NOW, visit an amazing site provided by the New York Public Library Website.

Illustration by Fernand Siméon from 'Candide ou L’optimisme' by Voltaire. Paris: Jules Meynial, 1922. NYPL, General Research Division.