Voltaire used his satirical wit to skillfully combine a crude, yet comical and entertaining story, with far reaching philosophical advice that debatably pertains to the way we should view and live life. Throughout Candide, Voltaire satirizes an myriad of topics. The ax of Voltaire's pen fell upon philosophies, religion, current events, and even people with whom he did not agree.
Voltaire resided in several locations in France and England during the 1700's. It was during this time that he was witness to things such as: the Seven-Years" War, the All Saints Day earthquake in Lisbon, the Spanish Inquisition, emergent philosophy of the Enlightenment, and much of the religious intolerance that was prevalent on the continent. Personal episodes and experiences such as these were the basis for his witticism. The lunacy involved in many of these major events constituted the bulk of what Candide satirized most. .
The condemnation of all orders of organized religion is a fairly obvious motif throughout the book. Voltaire created several hypocritical religious figures more concerned with themselves than the masses or their religion. He created a pope with a bastard child and mocked the auto-de-fe's that were being performed for absurd reasons on people guilty of inconsequential behavior. Voltaire included several conflicts between and within the Muslim, Jesuit, and Jewish religions. The recurring examples of the havoc that religious intolerance created illustrate quite clearly the opinion Voltaire held concerning organized religion. .
Voltaire is even more obvious in his ridicule of the philosophy of "pure optimism" in which people live in the "best of all possible worlds where every event is for the best". Many people use this line of thinking to justify why a benevolent God would create a world which contained so much evil. Voltaire's experiences and the examination of the cruel world around him, especially the All Saints Day earthquake of Lisbon, would not allow him to swallow the "every event is for the best" philosophy.