Every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character; that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence.

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

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

Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.

You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.

The faculty for remembering is not diminished in proportion to what one has learnt, just as little as the number of moulds in which you cast sand lessens its capacity for being cast in new moulds.

In truth the most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders.