Want and boredom are indeed the twin poles of human life.

Knowledge is to certain extent a second existence.

I constantly saw the false and the bad, and finally the absurd and the senseless, standing in universal admiration and honour.

There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ... The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.

There is one respect in which beasts show real wisdom... their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.

universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.

Whether we are in a pleasant or a painful state depends, finally, upon the kind of matter that pervades and engrosses our consciousness and what we compare it to - better and we envious and sad, worse and we feel grateful and happy.