Necessity is the constant scourge of the lower classes, ennui of the higher ones.

Reason is feminine in nature; it can only give after it has received.

This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.

I believe a person of any fine feeling scarcely ever sees a new face without a sensation akin to a shock, for the reason that it presents a new and surprising combination of unedifying elements.

Pride is generally censured and decried, but mainly by those who have nothing to be proud of.

The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.

It is not what things are objectively and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or the reverse.