The man who sees two or three generations is like one who sits in the conjuror's booth at a fair, and sees the same tricks two or three times. They are meant to be seen only once.

Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.

What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others.

This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.

Every genius is a great child; he gazes out at the world as something strange, a spectacle, and therefore with purely objective interest

It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

What give all that is tragic, whatever its form, the characteristic of the sublime, is the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction, and are not worth our investment in them. The tragic spirit consists in this. Accordingly it leads to resignation.