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.

[T]he appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de miseres.

On the path of actions, great heart is the chief recommendation; on that works, a great head.

It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer

The truth can wait, for it lives a long life.

Life without pain has no meaning.

Every genius is a great child; he gazes out at the world as something strange, a spectacle, and therefore with purely objective interest