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.
— Arthur Schopenhauer
In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's rights and double one's duties.
The word of man is the most durable of all material.
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.
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.
There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.
Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.
The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.
Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.
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.
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.
Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.
Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.
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.
The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.
A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations.
For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible.
The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body.
Because people have no thoughts to deal in, they deal cards, and try and win one another's money. Idiots!
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.
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 parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.
Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.
Music is the melody whose text is the world.
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.
Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.
The wise have always said the same things, and fools, who are the majority have always done just the opposite.
Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life.
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.
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.
The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.
Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
The longer a man's fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.
To live alone is the fate of all great souls.
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.
Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.
It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.
Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.
