The mother of useful arts is necessity; that of the fine arts is luxury. For father the former has intellect; the latter genius, which itself is a kind of luxury.

There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake.

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.

Happiness of any given life is to be measured, not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering-from positive evil.

A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.

The conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another.

There is one respect in which beasts show real wisdom... their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.