Fathers and sons are much more considerate of one another than mothers and daughters.

Let us beware of saying there are laws in nature. There are only necessities: there is no one to command, no one to obey, no one to transgress. When you realize there are no goals or objectives, then you realize, too, that there is no chance: for only in a world of objectives does the word chance have any meaning.

We are franker towards others than towards ourselves.

The way to transmute your iron duty into gold in everyone's eyes is this: always deliver more than you promise.

The melancholia of everything completed!

History is nothing more than the belief in the senses, the belief in falsehood.

For both parties in a controversy, the most disagreeable way of retaliating is to be vexed and silent; for the aggressor usually regards the silence as a sign of contempt.