All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.
Hatred is an affair of the heart contempt that of the head.
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
To live alone is the fate of all great souls.
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.
Music is the melody whose text is the world.
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another but women are by nature enemies.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.