Men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has.

If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited.

There seems to me no better explanation of our existence than that it is the result of some false step, some sin of which we are paying the penalty.

Slavery and poverty are only two forms of the same thing, the essence of which is that a man's physical powers are employed not for himself but for others.

What makes a man hard-hearted is this: each man has, or fancies he has, enough of his own troubles to bear.

They say that Brahma, when a man is created, engraves his doings and sufferings in written characters on his skull, and that his life must take shape in accordance therewith. They point to the jagged edges in the sutures of the skull-bones as evidence of this writing; and the purport of it, they say, depends on his…

Men of great genius, whether their work be in poetry, philosophy or art, stand in all ages like isolated heroes, keeping up single-handed a desperate struggling against the onslaught of an army of opponents.

Marrying means to grasp blindfolded into a sack hoping to find an eel out of an assembly of snakes.

Under fame of rapid growth is also to be reckoned fame of a false and artificial kind. Where, for instance, a book is worked into a reputation by means of unjust praise, the help of friends, corrupt criticism, prompting from above and collusion from below.

There are two things which make it impossible to believe that this world is the successful work of an all-wise, all-good, and, at the same time, all-powerful Being:

What a dangerous weapon is put into the hands of those who are authorized to employ falsehood as the vehicle of truth!

As Pliny says: Life is not so desirable a thing as to be protracted at any cost. Whoever you are, you are sure to die, even though your life has been full of abomination and crime. The chief of all remedies for a troubled mind is the feeling that among the blessings which Nature gives to man, there is none greater…

It seems to me that the idea of dignity can be applied only in an ironical sense to a being whose will is so sinful, whose intellect is so limited, whose body is so weak and perishable as man's.

Man is at bottom a savage, horrible beast.

Take the case of a large number of people who have formed themselves into a league for the purpose of carrying out some practical objective. If there be two rascals among them, they will recognize each other as readily as if they bore a similar badge, and will at once conspire for some misfeasance or treachery.

Truth is no harlot who throws her arms 'round the neck of him who does not desire her.

Never combat any man's opinion; for though you reached the age of Methuselah, you would never have done setting him right upon all the absurd things that he believes.

Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.

Every human face is a hieroglyphic, and a hieroglyphic, too, which admits of being deciphered, the alphabet of which we carry about with us already perfected.

Let anyone ask himself: What kind of countenance he may expect in those who have all their life long — except on the rarest occasions — harbored nothing but petty, base and miserable thoughts, and vulgar, selfish, envious, wicked and malicious desires?