Socialism is not a science, a sociology in miniature: it is a cry of pain.

Even one well-made observation will be enough in many cases, just as one well-constructed experiment often suffices for the establishment of a law.

Man is a moral being, only because he lives in society. Let all social life disappear and morality will disappear with it.

Our excessive tolerance with regard to suicide is due to the fact that, since the state of mind from which it springs is a general one, we cannot condemn it without condemning ourselves; we are too saturated with it not partly to excuse it.

At first sight, one does not see what relations there can be between religion and logic.

Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the pleasure taken in them naturally has a somewhat melancholy character.

Too cheerful a morality is a loose morality; it is appropriate only to decadent peoples and is found only among them.