It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do

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.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

A happy life is impos­si­ble; the best that a man can attain is a heroic 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.

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

In order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were not much more difficult to satisfy than those of the brute. Hence luxury in all its forms; delicate food, the use of tobacco and opium, spirituous liquors, fine clothes, and the thousand and one things that he considers necessary to his existence.