An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears.

There is nothing more ancient than the truth.

And as it is the most generous souls who have most gratitude, it is those who have most pride, and who are most base and infirm, who most allow themselves to be carried away by anger and hatred.

Because reason...is the only thing that makes us men, and distinguishes us from the beasts, I would prefer to believe that it exists, in its entirety, in each of us.

So far, I have been a spectator in this theater which is the world, but I am now about to mount the stage, and I come forward masked.

Now therefore, that my mind is free from all cares, and that I have obtained for myself assured leisure in peaceful solitude, I shall apply myself seriously and freely to the general destruction of all my former opinions.