First the truth is ridiculed. Then it meets outrage. Then it is said to have been obvious all along.

Boredom is an evil that is not to be estimated lightly. It can come in the end to real despair. The public authority takes precautions against it everywhere, as against other universal calamities.

Scholars are those who have read in books, but thinkers, men of genius, world-enlighteners, and reformers of the human race are those who have read directly in the book of the world.

Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

To feel envy is human, to savour schadenfreude is devilish

Hence, in all countries the chief occupation of society is card-playing, and it is the gauge of its value, and an outward sign that it is bankrupt in thought. Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another’s money. Idiots!