Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection.

There is only one inborn erroneous notion ... that we exist in order to be happy ... So long as we persist in this inborn error ... the world seems to us full of contradictions. For at every step, in great things and small, we are bound to experience that the world and life are certainly not arranged for the purpose of maintaining a happy existence ... hence the countenances of almost all elderly persons wear the expression of ... disappointment.

Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves.

All wanting comes from need, therefore from lack, therefore from suffering.

There are three stages in the revelation of truth. The first is to be ridiculed, the second is to be resisted and the third is to be considered self-evident.

Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought.

universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.