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.

We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.

With health, everything is a source of pleasure; without it, nothing else, whatever it may be, is enjoyable...Healt h is by far the most important element in human happiness.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

Apart from man, no being wonders at its own experience.

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.

What give all that is tragic, whatever its form, the characteristic of the sublime, is the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction, and are not worth our investment in them. The tragic spirit consists in this. Accordingly it leads to resignation.