The famous aphorism from Voltaire's "Candide" was extremely fond of the author's admirers. Although in the 21st century, when they say “everything is for the better” at another failure, many no longer even guess where this saying originates from.
It is unlikely that Voltaire, working on the work "Candide or Optimism", which saw the light of day in 1759, assumed that the dictum "tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles" after so many years would be relevant. True, spoken through the mouth of one of the heroes of this philosophical story, Dr. Panglos, it sounded like "everything is for the better in the best possible world."
With the frequent citation and translation of Voltaire's famous literary masterpiece into different languages, the quotation has partly lost the meaning originally put into it by the author. In Russian, it is used in another version: "whatever is done is for the best." Sometimes it is ironically added "just not to yours."
The collapse of Leibniz's theory of pre-established harmony
The roots of Voltaire's famous aphorism should be sought in the positions of the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, with which the author himself for some time fully agreed. One of them was that “everything is good,” and God would not have created this world if it were not the best. That is, God has already coordinated everything in the best way, and there is no need for a person to influence certain events.
In his story, Voltaire seeks to dispel Leibniz's false belief about pre-established harmony, since each person is endowed with the ability to freely act and make decisions. In order for the main character of the story, Candide, to come to this conclusion and get rid of the optimistic illusions of his mentor Panglos (the prototype of Leibniz), the author sends him on an incredible journey. Candide becomes a victim of all existing vices of society and encounters various people who differ from each other only in the degree of unhappiness.
At the end of the story, the protagonist meets a Turkish elder who helps Candida to develop his position in life - you need to cultivate your garden. This is Voltaire's main enlightening thought that it is useless to wait for the best while engaging in contemplation. Each person must determine the scope of their activities and work.
All for the best - reality or complacency
Although Voltaire meant in his work physical labor that relieves three evils: boredom, vice and need, to this can be added the need to work on oneself. The aphorism taken from Voltaire's book "Candide" should be understood not as an expectation of good things, which will certainly change the black line, but also as drawing a lesson from what happened.
Whichever way of life a person chooses, everything is not only good and smooth. Positive psychology, which in recent decades has become more and more popular, recommends taking all the hardships of life as another test of strength: is it worthy of the best? Therefore, the famous saying for many becomes a kind of navigator along the road of life, forcing them to stop, think about what happened, draw appropriate conclusions and continue moving towards the goal. Only by thinking positively and at the same time acting, can the attitude "everything for the better" be translated into reality.
