If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it..

To gain anything we have longed for is only to discover how vain and empty it is; and even though we are always living in expectation of better thing….

All pantheism must ultimately be shipwrecked on the inescapable demands of ethics, and then on the evil and suffering of the world. If the world is a….

Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars..

Truth is most beautiful undraped..

The faculty for remembering is not diminished in proportion to what one has learnt, just as little as the number of moulds in which you cast sand les….

Our civilized world is nothing but a great masquerade. You encounter knights, parsons, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, priests, philosophers and a thousa….

Hence, in all countries the chief occupation of society is card-playing, and it is the gauge of its value, and an outward sign that it is bankrupt in….

To expect a man to retain everything that he has ever read is like expecting him to carry about in his body everything that he has ever eaten..

Authors may be divided into falling stars, planets, and fixed stars: the first have a momentary effect; the second have a much longer duration; but t….

A man of genius can hardly be sociable, for what dialogues could indeed be so intelligent and entertaining as his own monologues?.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own..

Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This i….

The law of simplicity and naïveté applies to all fine art, for it is compatible with what is most sublime..

Style is what gives value and currency to thoughts..

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but i….

To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever..

Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see..

The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as….

Rascals are always sociable, more's the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in othe….

Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot….