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.
Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.
The less one, as a result of objective or subjective conditions, has to come into contact with people, the better off one is for it.
Rudeness is better than any argument; it totally eclipses intellect.
True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself.
The truth can wait, for it lives a long life.
Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought.
Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine.
Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.
All religions promise a reward beyond this life in eternity for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the head, of the understanding.
If a person is stupid, we excuse him by saying that he cannot help it; but if we attempted to excuse in precisely the same way the person who is bad, we should be laughed at.
Life is a business that does not cover the costs.
Reason is feminine in nature; it can only give after it has received.
Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations.
This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.
The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it.
Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made.
In truth the most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders.
Whoever wants his judgment to be believed, should express it coolly and dispassionately; for all vehemence springs from the will. And so the judgment might be attributed to the will and not to knowledge, which by its nature is cold.