A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.

The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.

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.

In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.

Genuine contempt, on the other hand, is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.

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.

The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.