If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much — and then performed so little.

Indeed, intolerance is essential only to monotheism; an only God is by nature a jealous God who will not allow another to live. On the other hand, polytheistic gods are naturally tolerant, they live and let live.

To buy books would be a good thing if we could also buy the time to read them; but the purchase of books is often mistaken for the assimilation and mastering of their contents.

That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can be accomplished by a machine.

For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls and on the other the devils in it.

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

Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves.