We men do nothing but lie and make ourselves important. Speech was invented for the purpose of magnifying all of our sensations and impressions — perhaps so that we could believe in them.

The supreme triumph of reason is to cast doubt upon its own validity.

Hell has been conceived as a police institution, to inspire fear in this world. But the worst of it all is that it no longer frightens anyone, and therefore it will have to be closed down.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt and be ignorant.

He who loves his neighbor burns his heart, and the heart, like green wood, groans when it burns, and distills itself in tears. There is no point in taking opium; it is better to put salt and vinegar in the soul's wound, for if you fall asleep and no longer feel the pain, then you no longer exist. And the point is to exist.

Philosophy fulfills the need to create for ourselves a single and complete concept of the world and of life.

From the subterranean ore of memory we extract the jeweled visions of our future.