There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject’s sake, and those who write for writing’s sake. […] The truth is that when an author begins to write for...

Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.

The Jews are the scum of the earth, but they are also great masters in lying.

Other people’s heads are too wretched a place for true happiness to have its seat.

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

(…) a ingenuidade se mantém como a indumentária de honra do gênio, assim como a nudez é a da beleza.

If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would...

A man can do what he wills, but not will as he wills.

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

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...

Bei gleicher Umgebung lebt doch jeder in einer anderen Welt.

Boredom is certainly not an evil to be taken lightly: it will ultimately etch lines of true despair onto a face. It makes beings with as little love for each other as humans nonetheless seek...

If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most Ill-adapted to its purpose in the world: for it is absurd to suppose that the endless affliction...

Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure

… that when you’re buying books, you’re optimistically thinking you’re buying the time to read them.(Paraphrase of Schopenhauer)

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

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is...

What keeps all living things busy and in motion is the striving to exist. But when existence is secured, they do not know what to do: that is why the second thing that sets them...

(…) assim como é preciso evitar uma sobrecarga de ornamentações na arquitetura, nas artes discursivas é preciso evitar sobretudo os floreios retóricos desnecessários, todas as amplificações inúteis e, acima de tudo, o que há de...

It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous; because in this case...

A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man

Viaţa şi visele sunt filele uneia şi aceleiaşi cărţi. Lectura ei coerentă înseamnă viaţa reală. Dar de fiecare dată, după ce s-a-ncheiat ora (ziua) destinată citirii şi a venit vremea repausului, adesea mai răsfoim plictisiţi...

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.

Gostaria que alguém tentasse escrever um dia uma história trágica da literatura, na qual expusesse como as diferentes nações, cada uma das quais deposita seu maior orgulho nos grandes escritores e artistas que tem a...

Philosophy … is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.

When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading;...

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...

If God made this world, then i would not want to be the God. It is full of misery and distress that it breaks my heart.

Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually...

To free a man from error is not to deprive him of anything but to give him something: for the knowledge that a thing is false is a piece of truth. No error is harmless:...

Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.

The true basis and propaedeutic for all knowledge of human nature is the persuasion that a man’s actions are, essentially and as a whole, not directed by his reason and its designs; so that no...

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...

One should use common words to say uncommon things

There are tree main bulwarks of defence against new thoughts: to pay no heed, to give no credence, and finally to assert that it had already long existed.

If I maintain my silence about my secret it is my prisoner…if I let it slip from my tongue, I am ITS prisoner.

Die, welche schwierige, dunkle, verflochtene, zweideutige Reden zusammensetzen, wissen ganz gewiss nicht recht, was sie sagen wollen, sondern haben nur ein dumpfes, nach einem Gedanken erst ringendes Bewusstsein davon; oft aber wollen sie sich selber...

Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer...

The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political...

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

Die allermeiste Gesellschaft ist so beschaffen, dass wer sie gegen die Einsamkeit vertauscht einen guten Handel macht.

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...

El hombre puede, acaso, hacer lo que quiere; pero no puede querer lo que quiere”.

Mitleid mit den Thieren hängt mit der Güte des Charakters so genau zusammen, daß man zuversichtlich behaupten darf, wer gegen Thiere grausam ist, könne kein guter Mensch seyn.

[Materialism] seeks the primary and most simple state of matter, and then tries to develop all the others from it; ascending from mere mechanism, to chemism, to polarity, to the vegetable and to the animal...

The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of...

A book can never be anything more than the impress of its author’s thoughts; and the value of these will lie either in the matter about which he has thought, or in the form which...

All striving comes from lack, from a dissatisfaction with one’s condition, and is thus suffering as long as it is not satisfied; but no satisfaction is lasting; instead, it is only the beginning of a...