It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.
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.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
Music is the melody whose text is the world.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another but women are by nature enemies.
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.
Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.
Money is human happiness in the abstract he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.