Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.
It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big.
Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced.
If life – the craving for which is the very essence of our being – were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.
Animals hear about death for the first time when they die.
The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space.
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.
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure.
It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.
First the truth is ridiculed. Then it meets outrage. Then it is said to have been obvious all along.
In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.
If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.
The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.