I think this pillar of free thought deserves a lengthy chapter in the annals we here hope to set down. Considering he lived in the eighteenth century, his capacity to see past bullshit was extraordinary. Candide has to be one of the better critiques of the regrettable status quo out there. Some of his two cents: "All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." "What an infantile superstition of the human mind that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge." "If someone has the power to make you believe absurdities, they can make you commit atrocities." "If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated." "It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong." "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." And of course, the legendary "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him." Talk about a man who transcended his time (1694-1778).
