“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
“A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.”
“The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.”
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
“The world is my representation.”
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”
“The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.”
“Life is a constant process of dying.”
“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”
“We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves to be like other people.”
“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
“Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability.”
“The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.”
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
“Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”
“The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority, have always done just the opposite.”
“Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”
“Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.”
“Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.”
“Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure.”
“The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.”
“Money is human happiness in the abstract.”
“To live alone is the fate of all great souls.”
“Boredom is a form of the void.”
“Ordinary people merely think how they shall spend their time; a man of talent tries to use it.”
“Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression, the deeper is the impression it makes.”
“After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.”
“The worst misfortune that can happen to an ordinary man is to have an extraordinary father.”
“We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.”
“If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist?”
“Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital, which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest, the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.”
“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.”
“A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.”
“Music is the melody whose text is the world.”
“The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.”
“To be alone is the fate of all great minds.”
“To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.”
“One should use common words to say uncommon things.”
“Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.”
“The greatest wisdom is to be ready at all times to exchange what you are for what you might become.”
“Wealth is like seawater; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.”
“A man is loved not for what he is but for what he promises to be.”
“Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves.”
“Every man has his own way of thinking, and every nation has its own way of doing.”
“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.”
“The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.”
“Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.”
“The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.”
“A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.”
“Man can indeed do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wants.”
“Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”
“He who writes carelessly confesses thereby at the same time that he thinks carelessly.”
“There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy.”
“Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.”
“The wise man lives as little as possible in the objective and as much as possible in the subjective.”
“The will to live is the only absolute, unconditioned, and self-evident truth.”
“If we were not all so excessively interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that nobody could endure it.”
“The more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself, the happier he will be.”
“With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty; but with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.”
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
“The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.”
“A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man.”
“In action, a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.”
“Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.”
“One can endure sorrow alone, but it takes two to be glad.”
“To buy books would be a good thing if we could also buy the time to read them.”
“It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.”
“Our happiness depends on what we are inside, not what we have on the outside.”
“In our monologues, we converse with our inner self, often the only truthful conversations we will ever have.”