Were an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life.

This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings.

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

A man of business will often deceive you without the slightest scruple, but he will absolutely refuse to commit a theft.

There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.

If God made the world, I would not be that God, for the misery of the world would break my heart.

He who lives to see two or three generations is like a man who sits some time in the conjurer's booth at a fair, and witnesses the performance twice or thrice in succession. The tricks were meant to be seen only once; and when they are no longer a novelty and cease to deceive, their effect is gone.