Voltaire's views on optimism set out in Candide In Voltaire's literature, particularly in Candide, he attacks the element of human optimism. This attack on human optimism was thought to be the result of his shock from the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. (Gay 46) Voltaire understood that enthusiasm was a mental illness. (Gay 256) He believed that philosophies should avoid the cheap complacency of optimism (Gay 46). As Voltaire attempted to summarize in Candide: "If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others like?" (Gay 26). Candide was proof that Voltaire despised optimism. The story is based on the assumption that God is responsible for placing us in an imperfect world. (Andrews101) Although Voltaire denied writing Candide, he openly expressed his views on optimism. He thought optimism was absurd because there is so much human misery. (Weitz 13) Voltaire defines optimism as “the passion to maintain that everything is fine when everything is bad.” (Weitz14) “Ultimately,” Voltaire said, “optimism is the self-protection of a hypothesis about the world as one might imagine, since absolutely nothing can disprove it.” (Weitz 14) Voltaire did not deny natural disasters or human suffering. He just denies that these phenomena are evil. He stated that they are necessary elements of the world. (Weitz 15) Voltaire believed that optimism was not a cause for joy or hope, but rather for despair. Evil exists and it is humanity's job to simply deal with it as best we can. (Weitz 17) Works Cited Andrews, Wayne. Voltaire. New York: New Directions Pub. 1981 Gay, Peter. The Politics of Voltaire.New York: Random House,1965 Weitz, Morris. Philosophy in literature. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press.1963