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 is
really free.
To
free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.
The
more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
To
find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you
first see a letter from them.
Friends
and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.
Suffering
by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the
arbitrary will of another.
Great
minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great
buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in
all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.
All
truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is
violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
They
tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is
wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which
every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.
Every
person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the
world.
Sleep
is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and
the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further
the date of redemption is postponed.
Boredom
is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather
than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.
I've
never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.
Just
remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
Martyrdom
is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
Buying
books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but
as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their
contents.
Treat
a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.
A
man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction
is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is
afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy
it when it comes.
It
is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his
character.
If
you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you
by the first sight of a letter from him.
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 it will
be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over
for yourself.
Every
man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
It
is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For
it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of
others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the
discarded clothes of a stranger.
If
we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that
none of us would be able to endure it.
Every
nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.
Compassion
is the basis of morality.
In
the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the
world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.
The
difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and
untrue at the same time.
A
man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
Reading
is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.
To
buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.
In
action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.
The
alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater
value.
It's
the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the
cards.
After
your death you will be what you were before your birth.
The
man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.
It
is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.
The
first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the
commentary on it.
A
man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth,
for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the
monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations.
Wealth
is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is
true of fame.
The
two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
The
greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.
The
fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
We
forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Nature
shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain,
and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches
its supreme point.
Politeness
is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
The
discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance
things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the
reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Almost
all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
It
is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.
Satisfaction
consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.
Will
minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.
Will
power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a
lame man who can see.