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

The ultimate foundation of honor is the conviction that moral character is unalterable: a single bad action implies that future actions of the same kind will, under similar circumstances, also be bad.

Ist es an und fu? r sich absurd, das Nichtsein fu? r einUbel zu ? halten; da jedes Ubel wie jedes Gut das Dasein zur Voraussetzung hat, ja sogar das Bewusstsein. It is in and by itself absurd to regard non-existence as an evil; for every evil, like every good, presupposes existence, indeed even consciousness.

There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake.

The faculty for remembering is not diminished in proportion to what one has learnt, just as little as the number of moulds in which you cast sand lessens its capacity for being cast in new moulds.

Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.

Ignorance is degrading only when found in company with great riches.