To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.

The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too.

To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.

Optimism is not only a false but also a pernicious doctrine, for it presents life as a desirable state and man's happiness as its aim and object. Starting from this, everyone then believes he has the most legitimate claim to happiness and enjoyment. If, as usually happens, these do not fall to his lot, he believes that he suffers an injustice, in fact that he misses the whole point of his existence.

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.