Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 112 |
| AUTHOR: | François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778) |
| QUOTATION: | In this best of all possible worlds, My Lord the Baron’s castle was the finest of castles, and My Lady the best of all possible Baronesses. “It is demonstrated,” he [Pangloss] said, “that things cannot be otherwise, for, everything being made for an end, everything is necessarily for the best end.” (Dans ce meilleur des mondes possibles, le château de monseigneur le baron était le plus beau des châteaux, et madame la meilleure des baronnes possibles. Il est démontré, disait-il, que les choses ne peuvent être autrement: car tout étant fait pour une fin, tout est nécessairement pour la meilleure fin.) |
| ATTRIBUTION: | With judicious omissions and elisions, and by reversing phrases, the above can be made into the often-quoted, “Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds,” an aphorism popularized in the 1960s by the musical, Candide, words by Lillian Hellman and music by Leonard Bernstein. |
| SUBJECTS: | Best |