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

Sexual passion is the cause of war and the end of peace, the basis of what is serious... and consequently the concentration of all desire

Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.

One can forget everything, everything, only not oneself, one's own being.

Rascals are always sociable, more's the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others' company.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

Every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character; that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence.