Shame is the beginning of anger against what should not happen. Shame is mild anger at yourself because it contains in itself a reaction to the contradiction between what you are and what you should and want to be.
Happy is he who has arranged his existence in such a way that it corresponds to the particularities of his character.
The secret of happiness lies in the ability to get out of the circle of your own "I".
Talent without genius does not rise much above the level of mere virtuosity.
Because marriage contains feelings, it is not absolute, but unstable, containing within itself the possibility of dissolution. But legislation should at the highest level prevent the realization of this possibility and protect morality against caprice.
Only one man understood me; but even that, to be honest, didn't understand me.
Only by achieving the greatest goals does a person discover in himself a strong character that becomes a support for those around him.
The obstinate insists on his position only because it is his position, he insists on it without a reasonable basis, that is, without his position representing anything of universal value.
Character is determining the form of will and interest that make you important.
Man must not fear the external force that overwhelms him, but the moral power that determines his free thought [...] so that, by speaking out against it, man rebels against himself.
Man is immortal thanks to knowledge. Knowledge, thought forms the root of life and its immortality.
Man is forced to fight with necessity, established by nature. His moral duty is to conquer freedom through his own actions and judgments.
Man must respect himself and consider himself worthy of something as high as possible. He cannot exaggerate in his own thoughts the supremacy and courage of the spirit.
Man is nothing but the string of his deeds.
Man will not become master of nature until he becomes master of himself.
Mankind was freed not so much from enslavement as through enslavement. For brutality, avarice, injustice are the essence of evil; the man who does not free himself from evil is not capable of morality, and discipline deprived him precisely of this desire.
What is debt? For now, we have no other answer than the following: the fact of doing something right and taking care of one's own good and that of others.
In regard to a particular vocation, which seems to be destiny, the form of external necessity must be removed. You must choose your destiny freely, resist it and realize it.
For my deed to have moral worth, my trust must be connected with it. An act done out of fear of punishment or out of a desire to create a good impression of oneself is not moral.
For the deed to have a moral value, we must determine whether it is just or unjust, whether it is good or bad.
The author eventually gets used to his audience, as if they were a flesh and blood being.
Alexandre Dumas steals from the past to enrich the present. There is no sixth commandment in art.
English people take a dozen monosyllabic words in their mouths, chew them, swallow them and spit them out - this is what is called the English language.
The English and the Italians alike resemble statues with the tips of their noses blunted.
I haven't read Auffenberg I suppose it's similar to Arlincourt but I haven't read this one either.
Ah! That was a long time ago! I was young and stupid back then. Now I'm old and stupid.
God exists; but it would be a great crime to say that "I believe in God."
God will forgive me the nonsense I have said to Him, as I forgive my wrongdoers the nonsense they wrote against me, though morally they were as low as me as I am towards You, Lord!
Whether she was a benefactor, I don't know; it is certain that she was always cheeky, and cheekiness in women is the good part of the road.
Can poetry be a disease of man, as the pearl is a painful growth from which the poor mollusk suffers?