Something of great importance now past is inferior to something of little importance now present, in that the latter is a reality, and related to the former as something to nothing.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

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.

What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct.

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.

For, after all, the foundation of our whole nature, and, therefore, of our happiness, is our physique, and the most essential factor in happiness is health, and, next in importance after health, the ability to maintain ourselves in independence and freedom from care.

The heavy armor becomes the light dress of childhood; the pain is brief, the joy unending.