In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.

The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favourably received at first.

If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?

If at times I have thought myself unfortunate, it is because of a confusion, an error. I have mistaken myself for someone else... Who am I really? I am the author of The World as Will and Representation, I am the one who has given an answer to the mystery of Being that will occupy the thinkers of future centuries. That is what I am, and who can dispute it in the years of life that still remain for me?

Honour is external conscience, and conscience is inward honour.