Candide

There lived in Westphalia, at the country seat of Baron Thunderten-tronckh, a young lad blessed with the most agreeable manners. He combined sound judgment with unaffected simplicity; and that, I suppose is why he was called Candide. Excerpt In this witty political satire, a gentle man plagued by misfortune clings to the belief that all is for the best. Voltaire mocks the eternal optimist philosophy of his day that proclaimed human and natural disasters are a part of a larger cosmic plan.