You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing and absolutely nothing other than that one thing..

The ultimate foundation of honor is the conviction that moral character is unalterable: a single bad action implies that future actions of the same k….

The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public….

You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak..

Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life..

...a genuine work of art, can never be false, nor can it be discredited through the lapse of time, for it does not present an opinion but the thing i….

You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want..

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority..

Whatever torch we kindle, and whatever space it may illuminate, our horizon will always remain encircled by the depth of night..

I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people..

Honour is external conscience, and conscience is inward honour..

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character..

In many cases hate a person is rooted in the involuntary estimate of its virtues..

Pantheism is only a polite form of atheism..

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 more to hi….

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see..

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he….

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else..

We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter..

Consciousness makes the individual careful to maintain his own existence; and if this were not so, there would be no surety for the preservation of t….

In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods..