Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.

Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes.

If people insist that honor is dearer than life itself, what they really mean is that existence and well-being are as nothing compared with other people's opinions. Of course, this may be only an exaggerated way of stating the prosaic truth that reputation, that is, the opinion others have of us, is indispensable if we are to make any progress in the world.

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.

Human life, like all inferior goods, is covered on the outside with a false glitter; what suffers always conceals itself.

The conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another.

How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.