*Meilleur des mondes possibles* — French for "the **best of all possible worlds**." [[Leibniz]]'s formula for his doctrine of optimism: since God is omnipotent and perfectly good, he necessarily created the best world that could exist, so every apparent evil is a required part of the greatest overall good. In *Evil in Modern Thought* the phrase appears (p. 209) as a **direct quotation from [[Schopenhauer]]**, who turned Leibniz's phrase against him — holding that this is rather the *worst* of all possible worlds. > [!note] Seedling — this definition is still being developed. Source: [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] by Susan Neiman, p. 209 (quoted there directly from [[Schopenhauer]]).