"The art of not reading is a very important one. [. . .] [Y]ou should remember that he who writes for fools always find a large public. " A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: For life is short."

"If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?"

"The happiness of any given life is to be measured not by its joys and pleasures but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering from positive evil."

"One simple test of the claim that the pleasure in the world outweighs the pain is to compare the feelings of an animal that is devouring another with those of the animal being devoured."

"Clio, the muse of history, is as thoroughly infected with lies as a street whore with syphilis."

"What light is to the outer physical world intellect is to the inner world of consciousness. For intellect is related to the will, and thus also to the organism which is nothing other than will regarded objectively, in the approximate same way as light is to a combustible body and the oxygen in combination with which it ignites."

"To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence."

"I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man."

"The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience."

"If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked."

"Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost."

"Any book which is at all important should be re-read immediately."

"In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head."

"It is easy to understand that in the dreary middle ages the Aristotelian logic would be very acceptable to the controversial spirit of the schoolmen, which, in the absence of all real knowledge, spent its energy upon mere formulas and words, and that it would be eagerly adopted even in its mutilated Arabian form, and presently established as the centre of all knowledge."

"Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal."

"Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties."

"Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world."

"It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us."

"Common people are merely intent on spending time - whoever has some talent, on making use of it."

"I've never know any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage."

"Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour."

"It would be a great mistake to suppose that it is sufficient not to become personal yourself. For by showing a man quite quietly that he is wrong, and that what he says and thinks is incorrect - a process which occurs in every dialectical victory - you embitter him more than if you used some rude or insulting expression. Why is this? Because, as Hobbes observes, all mental pleasure consists in being able to compare oneself with others to one's own advantage. - Nothing is of greater moment to a man than the gratification of his vanity, and no wound is more painful than that which is inflicted on it. Hence such phrases as "Death before dishonour, and so on."

"How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do."

"Time is that in which all things pass away."

"The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him."

"Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death."

"Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first."

"Do not shorten the morning by getting up late look upon it as the quintessence of life and to a certain extent sacred."

"The greatest intellectual capacities are only found in connection with a vehement and passionate will."

"The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable."

"What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them."

"In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods."

"I believe that when death closes our eyes we shall awaken to a light, of which our sunlight is but the shadow."

"Reason deserves to be called a prophet for in showing up the consequence and effect of our actions in the present does it not tell us what the future will be?"

"It will generally be found that, as soon as the terrors of life reach the point at which they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life. But the terrors of death offer considerable resistance; they stand like a sentinel at the gate leading out of this world. Perhaps there is no man alive who would not have already put an end to his life, if this end had been of a purely negative character, a sudden stoppage of existence. There is something positive about it; it is the destruction of the body; and a man shrinks from that, because his body is the manifestation of the will to live."

"Necessity is the constant scourge of the lower classes ennui of the higher ones."

"What give all that is tragic, whatever its form, the characteristic of the sublime, is the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction, and are not worth our investment in them. The tragic spirit consists in this. Accordingly it leads to resignation."

"The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting."

"The fly ought to be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else and run away even before he comes near them the fly lights upon his very nose."

"Rascals are always sociable, more's the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others' company."

"Everywhere where detestable Islam has not yet driven out the ancient, profound religions of humanity with fire and sword, my ascetic results would have to fear the reproach of being trivial."

"In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's rights and double one's duties."

"There is not much to be got anywhere in the world. It is filled with misery and pain; if a man escapes these, boredeom lies in wait for him at every corner. Nay more; it is evil which generally has the upper hand, and folly that makes the most noise. Fate is cruel and mankind pitiable."

"Sleep is the interest we have to pay on the capital which is called in at death; and the higher the rate of interest and the more regularly it is paid, the further the date of redemption is postponed."

"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world."

"The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity."

"The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice."

"Education stuffs you full of ideas without the coinciding experience that gave rise to those ideas in the first place, giving you incorrect perspective and notions."

"A man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for."

"Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune."