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.

I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant's works, the sacred writings of the Hindus, and Plato.

The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.

To attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and…though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving only as the road to our goal. That is why most men discover when they look back on their life that they have the whole time been living ad interim, and are surprised to see that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely in expectation of which they lived.

Reasonable and vicious are quite consistent with each other, in fact, only through their union are great and far-reaching crimes possible

Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.

A man must have grown old and lived long in order to see how short life is.