Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

I wish to become rich, so that I can instruct the people and glorify honest poverty a little, like those kind hearted, fat, benevolent people do.

When a man stands on the verge of seventy-two you know perfectly well that he never reached that place without knowing what this life is - heartbreaking bereavement.

There is no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level.

It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right

Schoolboy days are no happier than the days of afterlife, but we look back upon them regretfully because we have forgotten our punishments at school and how we grieved when our marbles were lost and our kites destroyed – because we have forgotten all the sorrows and privations of the canonized ethic and remember only its orchard robberies, its wooden-sword pageants, and its fishing holidays.