Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.

Energy rests upon love; and come as it will, there's no forcing it.

I can't understand how anyone can write without rewriting everything over and over again.

Everything intelligent is so boring.

The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded.

Why should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable death that awaits me does not undo and destroy?

Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre