We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

Life is a business that does not cover the costs.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

...this our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is-nothing.

If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets, he will not have much energy left for anything else; whereas he can despise them, one and all, with the greatest ease.