Thought is a kind of opium; it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake; it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists.

To marry unequally is to suffer equally.

To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.

Will localizes us; thought universalizes us.

Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.

Common sense is calculation applied to life.

What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence....

There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.

Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding to one’s liberty.

Society lives by faith, and develops by science.

Common sense is the measure of the possible.

Learn to… be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.

A philosopher is [one who] aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light.

Its way of suffering is the witness which a soul bares to itself.

Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness.

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.

The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the illusion of which all creatures are the willing playthings; he is less duped than his neighbor by his...

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

The only substance properly so called is the soul.

Nothing is more characteristic of a man than the manner in which he behaves toward fools.

Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library.

Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to common sense, and in lending oneself to the universal delusion without becoming its dupe.

A man only understands what is akin to something already existing in himself.

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.

To shun one’s cross is to make it heavier.

Our true history is scarcely ever deciphered by others. The chief part of the drama is a monologue, or rather an intimate debate between God, our conscience, and ourselves. Tears, grieves, depressions, disappointments, irritations, good...

Destiny has two ways of crushing us – by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

Charm is the quality in others, that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

Melancholy is at the bottom of everything, just as at the end of all rivers is the sea. Can it be otherwise in a world where nothing lasts, where all that we have loved or...

Health is the first of all liberties, and happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.

Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority.

Life is short and we never have enough time for gladdening the hearts of those who travel the way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.

The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings

Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.

An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.

Action is only coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.

It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into...

The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.

Destiny has two ways of crushing us — by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

I’m not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You’re as old as you feel.

To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.

Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the...

To be always ready a man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.