Monotheistic religions alone furnish the spectacle of religious wars, religious persecutions, heretical tribunals, that breaking of idols and destruction of images of the gods, that razing of Indian temples and Egyptian colossi, which had looked on the sun 3,000 years: just because a jealous god had said, Thou shalt make no graven image.

Every genius is a great child; he gazes out at the world as something strange, a spectacle, and therefore with purely objective interest

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions.

We must set limits to our wishes, curb our desires, moderate our anger, always remembering that an individual can attain only an infinitesimal share in anything that is worth having; and that on the other hand, everyone must incur many of the ills of life

It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do

Life without pain has no meaning.