The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.

In their hearts women think that it is men's business to earn money and theirs to spend it.

That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me.

Thus also every keen pleasure is an error and an illusion, for no attained wish can give lasting satisfaction.

It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them.

Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost.