Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine.
Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.
Human existence is an error...it is bad today and every day it gets worse, until the worst happens.
A man becomes a philosopher by reason of a certain perplexity, from which he seeks to free himself.
First the truth is ridiculed. Then it meets outrage. Then it is said to have been obvious all along.
The first rule for a good style is to have something to say; in fact, this in itself is almost enough.
What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others.
The greatest intellectual capacities are only found in connection with a vehement and passionate will.
To desire immortality for the individual is really the same as wanting to perpetuate an error forever.
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.
If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the miseries of boredom.
A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.
What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct.
Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided, according as a man's personal value is large or small.
The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.
It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher.
Marrying means, to grasp blindfolded into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes.
To call the world God is not to explain it; it is only to enrich our language with a superfluous synonym.
For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
The law of simplicity and naïveté applies to all fine art, for it is compatible with what is most sublime.
You must treat a work of art like a great man: stand before it and wait patiently till it deigns to speak.
We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.
Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
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.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions.
Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.
What now on the other hand makes people sociable is their incapacity to endure solitude and thus themselves.
There is one respect in which beasts show real wisdom... their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.
The young should early be trained to bear being left alone; for it is a source of happiness and peace of mind.
Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction.
To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.
I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow.
Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.
The cause of laughter is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real project.
A major difficulty in translation is that a word in one language seldom has a precise equivalent in another one.
If I maintain my silence about my secret it is my prisoner...if I let it slip from my tongue, I am ITS prisoner.
Every truth passes through 3 stages before it is recognized 1)ridicule 2) opposition 3) accepted as self-evident.
The principle of contradiction establishes merely the agreement of concepts, but does not itself produce concepts.
There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the altar of monogamy?
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last.
The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.
All our wanting comes from needs, thus we continiously suffer. The intellect teaches free will, free from suffering.
I love looking at famous people. Because of the way they look. Because of the way photography makes them look famous.