It is a curious fact that in bad days we can very vividly recall the good time that is now no more; but that in good days, we have only a very cold and imperfect memory of the bad.

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.

Pride is generally censured and decried, but mainly by those who have nothing to be proud of.

Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes; this is partly because it gets unobstructed hold of the hearer’s mind without his being distracted by secondary thoughts, and partly because he feels that here he is not being corrupted or deceived by the arts of rhetoric, but that the whole effect is got from the thing itself.

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.

This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid.