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

The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details. The present enjoys no such advantage, and so it always seems defective.

True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself.

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

The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain… Music expresses only the quintessence of life and its events, never these themselves.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.