The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.
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.
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.
Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.
Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.
National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.
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.
The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.
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.
