We pay dearly for immortality: we die for it more than once during our lifetimes.

Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious.

One hears but one does not seek; one takes -- one does not ask who gives; a thought flashes up like lightning, it comes of necessity and unfalteringly formed.

He who does not desire much more from things than knowledge of them easily makes peace with his soul.

Whoever wants to set a good example must add a grain of foolishness to his virtue: then others can imitate and yet at the same time surpass the one they imitate-which human beings love to do.

The magnitude of a progress is gauged by the greatness of the sacrifice that it requires.

One must never have spared oneself, one must have acquired hardness as a habit to be cheerful and in good spirits in the midst of nothing but hard truths.