The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details. The present enjoys no such advantage, and so it always seems defective.

Education perverts the mind since we are directly opposing the natural development of our mind by obtaining ideas first and observations last. This is why so few men of learning have such sound common sense as is quite common among the illiterate.

Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself.

Necessity is the constant scourge of the lower classes, ennui of the higher ones.

What now on the other hand makes people sociable is their incapacity to endure solitude and thus themselves.

That a god like Jehovah should have created this world of misery and woe, out of pure caprice, and because he enjoyed doing it, and should then have clapped his hands in praise of his own work, and declared everything to be very good-that will not do at all!

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.