If there is anything in the world that can really be called a man's property, it is surely that which is the result of his mental activity.

Consciousness makes the individual careful to maintain his own existence; and if this were not so, there would be no surety for the preservation of the species. From all this it is clear that individuality is not a form of perfection, but rather a limitation; and so to be freed from it is not loss but gain.

Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.

That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can be accomplished by a machine.

Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made.

A happy life is impos­si­ble; the best that a man can attain is a heroic life.

What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.