We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude
The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.
It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous; because in this case effect follows very quickly on cause.
Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure
Philosophy … is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.
After your death, you will be what you were before your birth.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible
Qualsiasi uomo notevole, chiunque cioè non appartenga a quei 5/6 dell’umanità dotati tanto miseramente dalla natura, rimarrà dopo i quarant’anni difficilmente esente da una certa traccia di misantropia.
No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.
A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.
Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.
Death is the true inspiring genius, or the muse of philosophy, wherefore Socrates has defined the latter as θανάτου μελέτη. Indeed without death men would scarcely philosophise.
Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced.
One should use common words to say uncommon things
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
Let us see rather that like Janus—or better, like Yama, the Brahmin god of death—religion has two faces, one very friendly, one very gloomy…
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.
Time is that by which at every moment all things become as nothing in our hands, and thereby lose all their true value.
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
The art of not reading is a very important one. [. . .] [Y]ou should remember that he who writes for fools always find a large public. – A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: For life is short.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man.
Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.
… that when you’re buying books, you’re optimistically thinking you’re buying the time to read them.(Paraphrase of Schopenhauer)
Reading is thinking with someone else’s head instead of ones own.
I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.
That the Negroes were enslaved more than other races, and on a large scale, is evidently a result of their being, in contrast to other races, inferior in intelligence – which, however, does not justify such slavery
Clio, the muse of history, is as thoroughly infected with lies as a street whore with syphilis.
Marrying means to halve one’s rights and double one’s duties
There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the alter of monogamy
Every society requires mutual accommodation and mutually agreeable temper; hence the larger it is, the duller.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.
I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow.
It is for this reason that we find that co-existence, which could neither be intime alone, for time has no contiguity, nor in space alone, forspace has no before, after, or now,
How is it possible that suffering that is neither my own nor of my concern should immediately affect me as though it were my own, and with such force that is moves me to action?
There are tree main bulwarks of defence against new thoughts: to pay no heed, to give no credence, and finally to assert that it had already long existed.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.
If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world.
One simple test of the claim that the pleasure in the world outweighs the pain…is to compare the feelings of an animal that is devouring another with those of the animal being devoured.
It will generally be found that as soon the terrors of live reach the point where they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life.
The Jews are the scum of the earth, but they are also great masters in lying.
Rascals are always sociable, and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others company.
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.
Health so far outweighs all external goods that a healthy beggars is truly more fortunate than a king in poor health.
In general, nine-tenths of our happiness depends on our health alone.
optimism, where it is not just the thoughtless talk of someone with only words in his flat head, strikes me as not only absurd, but even a truly wicked way of thinking, a bitter mockery of the unspeakable sufferings of humanity.
Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
Everywhere where detestable Islam has not yet driven out the ancient, profound religions of humanity with fire and sword, my ascetic results would have to fear the reproach of being trivial
I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.
Education stuffs you full of ideas without the coinciding experience that gave rise to those ideas in the first place, giving you incorrect perspective and notions.
Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death. The higher the interest rate and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed
For whence did Dante get the material for his hell, if not from this actual world of ours? And indeed he made a downright hell of it.
The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy.
Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.
If I maintain my silence about my secret it is my prisoner…if I let it slip from my tongue, I am ITS prisoner.
there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?
Other people’s heads are too wretched a place for true happiness to have its seat.
To become reconciled to a friend with whom you have broken, is a form of weakness; and you pay the penalty of it when he takes the first opportunity of doing precisely the very thing which brought about the breach.
To measure a man’s happiness only by what he gets, and not also by what he expects to get, is as futile as to try and express a fraction which shall have a numerator but no denominator.
Common people are merely intent on spending time – whoever has some talent, on making use of it.
Every fulfilled wish we wrest from the world is really like alms that keep the beggar alive today so that he can starve again tomorrow.
You can do what you will: but at each given moment of your life you can will only one determined thing and by no means anything other than this one.
To feel envy is human, to savour schadenfreude is devilish.
A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.
If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked.
If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the miseries of boredom.
Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.
Not to go to the theatre is like making one’s toilet without a mirror.
We should comport ourselves with the masterpieces of art as with exalted personages – stand quietly before them and wait till they speak to us.
Any book which is at all important should be re-read immediately.
Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the business man.
Gaiety alone as it were is the hard cash of happiness everything else is just a promissory note.
The fly ought to be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else and run away even before he comes near them the fly lights upon his very nose.
The fly ought to be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else and run away even before he comes near them the fly lights upon his very nose.
The happiness of any given life is to be measured not by its joys and pleasures but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering from positive evil.
If you want to know your true opinion of someone watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.
Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are by their very nature highly uncertain precarious ephemeral and subject to chance.
Money is human happiness in the abstract he then who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.
Hatred comes from the heart contempt from the head and neither feeling is quite within our control.
Fame is something which must be won honour is something which must not be lost.
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party when the masks are dropped.
Each day is a little life every waking and rising a little birth every fresh morning a little youth every going to rest and sleep a little death.
Do not shorten the morning by getting up late look upon it as the quintessence of life and to a certain extent sacred.
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.
Each day is a little life every waking and rising a little birth every fresh morning a little youth every going to rest and sleep a little death.
A man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.
(Politeness is) a tacit agreement that people’s miserable defects whether moral or intellectual shall on either side be ignored and not be made the subject of reproach.
To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.
Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence with the certainty of losing it at last.
Reason deserves to be called a prophet for in showing up the consequence and effect of our actions in the present does it not tell us what the future will be?
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.
Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are by their very nature highly uncertain precarious ephemeral and subject to chance.
Necessity is the constant scourge of the lower classes ennui of the higher ones.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
It is in trifles and when he is off his guard that a man best shows his character.
Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed in the second it is opposed in the third it is regarded as self-evident.
The greatest intellectual capacities are only found in connection with a vehement and passionate will.
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
In early youth as we contemplate our coming life we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin.
The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.
Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another but women are by nature enemies.
Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.
Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.
Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.
They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice… that suicide is wrong when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed.
Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another but women are by nature enemies.
Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.
Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots!
We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.
Hatred is an affair of the heart contempt that of the head.