A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

A man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.

Unrest is the mark of existence.

At bottom, every state regards another as a gang of robbers who will fall upon it as soon as there is an opportunity.

We may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who think through others. The latter are the rule and the former the exception. The first are original thinkers in a double sense, and egotists in the noblest meaning of the word.

To expect a man to retain everything that he has ever read is like expecting him to carry about in his body everything that he has ever eaten.

Genius is an intellect that has become unfaithful to its destiny.