The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.
The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honour or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.
The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.
Do not hurry; do not rest.
We all of us live upon the past, and through the past we are destroyed.
Rest not Life is sweeping by go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.
I have, alas! Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence too, And to my cost Theology, With ardent labor, studied through. And here I stand, with all my lore, Poor fool, no wiser than before.
Oh happy he who still can hope in our day to breathe the truth while plunged in seas of error! What we don’t know is really what we need, and what we know is of no use to us whatever!
There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.
Beware of her fair hair, for she excels All women in the magic of her locks; And when she winds them round a young man’s neck, She will not ever set him free again.
I nothing had, and yet enough for youth – Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. Give unrestrained, the old emotion, The bliss that touched the verge of pain, The strength of Hate, Love’s deep devotion, – O, give me back my youth again!
When she sees the leaves fall, they raise no other idea in her mind than that winter is approaching.
And I like those authors best whose scenes describe my own situation in life – and the friends who are about me whose stories touch me with interest, from resembling my own homely existence.
My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect; and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy – the purest joy of life.
The world runs on from one folly to another; and the man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool.
I am amazed to see how deliberately I have entangled myself step by step. To have seen my position so clearly, and yet to have acted so like a child!
The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever.
How many kings are governed by their ministers, how many ministers by their secretaries? Who, in such cases, is really the chief?
What a torment it is to see so much loveliness passing and repassing before us, and yet not dare to lay hold of it!