Even the most powerful and influential men are subject to absurd reversals of fortune. His personal, if temporary, good fortune provides reason enough to forget all prior disasters and agree once again with Dr. Pangloss. Meanwhile Martin remains skeptical of Pangloss's philosophy and comfortable in his pessimism. Candide asks Pangloss if he still believes in optimism after all he had endured. Pangloss confirms the suspicion that optimism is a counter-intuitive doctrine.
Optimism ignores the dilemma of human suffering by making evil and misery part of a perfect world.
Like optimism, pessimism is another form of fatalism, which leads to moral apathy. The Dervish gives fitting advice when he tells Pangloss to hold his tongue. Pangloss has the maddening habit of offering unsolicited and neat explanations for a messy world. What Voltaire intended by this cryptic statement is disputed. Within the context of Candide , it seems reasonable to conclude that cultivating one's garden is a pragmatic alternative to the theories and abstract notions of optimism, which have little bearing on life.