All truth passes through three stages: first, it is ridiculed; next it is violently attacked; finally, it is held to be self-evident.

A word too much always defeats its purpose.

Everybody's friend is nobody's.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Fame is something which must be won. Honour is something which must not be lost.

He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.

Journalists are, in the very nature of their calling, alarmists; and this is their way of giving interest to what they write. Herein they are like little dogs; if anything stirs, they immediately set up a shrill bark.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

Many learned persons have read themselves stupid.

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.

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

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.

Pride is an established conviction of one's own paramount worth in some particular respect; while vanity is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others. Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself. Vanity is the desire to arrive at this appreciation indirectly, from without.

The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

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.

To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.

To marry is to halve your rights and double your duties.

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

What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.