In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.

Everybody's friend is nobody's.

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.

In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.

Consider the Koran... this wretched book was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical need of countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and the most extensive conquests. In this book we find the saddest and poorest form of theism. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value.

Men need some kind of external activity, because they are inactive within.

A man's delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.