Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task.
The scenes of our life are like pictures done in rough mosaic. Looked at close, they produce no effect. There is nothing beautiful to be found in them, unless you stand some distance off.
Unrest is the mark of existence.
Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.
Want and boredom are indeed the twin poles of human life.
Life is neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be understood.
Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.
If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets, he will not have much energy left for anything else; whereas he can despise them, one and all, with the greatest ease.
Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible.
Genius is to other gifts what the carbuncle is to the precious stones. It sends forth its own light, whereas other stones only reflect borrowed light.
Ignorance is degrading only when found in company with great riches.
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 the third are unchangeable, possess their own light, and work for all time.
The mother of useful arts is necessity; that of the fine arts is luxury. For father the former has intellect; the latter genius, which itself is a kind of luxury.
The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.
Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.
The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.
There are three stages in the revelation of truth. The first is to be ridiculed, the second is to be resisted and the third is to be considered self-evident.