Bold thoughts play the role of pawns in the game of chess: they perish, but ensure victory.
The judge who is unable to punish ends up being the accomplice of the criminal.
Happiness is often compared to a sphere, for both are rapidly rolling; this comparison is doubly justified, as it also contains a second meaning. The still sphere shows itself to the observer as perfect, closed in itself, a self-sufficient being, and therefore, like the happy one, it cannot draw attention to itself for too long. Any contentment, any reconciliation, regardless of what results, are simple. We are happy only for ourselves...
What floats in the air and what takes time can appear simultaneously in a hundred heads without any imitation.
Only the man endowed with special sensitivity can become the coldest and the most firm. He is forced to hide under a hard shell... But this shell often becomes a burden to him. I need loud, vivid sounds. It is said that Napoleon, who was a tyrant, loved fine music, and I, probably because I am not a tyrant, love lively, joyful, loud music. Man always tends to be what he really is not.
He who rebels against rational truths, kindles their flame; sparks fly in all directions and ignite the light. Wisdom is only in truth.
Facts have an unlimited power over the minds of most men, and the seemingly impossible finds its place alongside the ordinary as soon as it has happened.
Although the whole world is moving forward, young people, every time, have to take it from the beginning.
Man knows himself only to the extent that he knows the world.
The more original and unapproachable the poetic creation, the better.
What is the hardest? - What seems easiest to you: to see with your eyes what you have right in front of your eyes!
Abroad will never be your homeland.
Prosperity is a skilled teacher, but misfortune surpasses it.
Riches soften the mind, and privations strengthen it.
Among other things, the love of justice is rooted in envy.
We repent for good deeds more than for bad ones.
Even in vice there is division of labor. Some indulge in contemplation, others act.
A favorite thought is a lifetime wealth.
A true philosopher is he who can forget himself.
Our self-love can slip through any crack.
Some make promises for the pleasure of breaking them.
When it is no longer scandalous, a thought ceases to be interesting.
The most hypocritical people are fooled more often than others.
The aspiration to power is as inherent in man as the worship of authority or of oneself. The first trait makes us tyrants, and the second makes us slaves.
He who loves and fights for justice, usually does not abuse it.
Man is the only animal that laughs and cries; for he is the only animal who realizes the difference between what is and what ought to be.
Wisdom presupposes that self-benefit should not be seen as the goal of moral conduct, although it may be a consequence of it.
Wisdom consists in not destroying the state of others and preserving it for its own sake.
Marriage is a legal love; by this definition, everything that is fleeting, capricious and subjective is excluded from love.
To be one's own master and slave seems a privilege compared to the situation in which man is another man's slave.