It is hard to imagine what would happen to a man who would live in a state populated only by literary heroes.
A coward is a man who in moments of danger thinks with his feet.
The belief that you are loved lessens the pain of separation.
The last "forgive me" loses some of its bitterness, if the echo of love is still felt in it.
The wise man is happy only when he personally receives praise; but the fool is also satisfied with the applause given to those next to him.
A beautiful book is a gift bequeathed by the author to all humanity.
Although I am always serious, I do not know melancholy...
Man is the most joyful creature of all God's creations; everything below it or above it inclines to seriousness.
Man must always think of how much wealth he has in addition to what he needs, and how unhappy he may be in the future.
Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the ability to laugh.
The man who is gifted with the gift of irony has a habit of attaching himself to anything that gives him the opportunity to demonstrate his talent.
The reader will read a book with more pleasure if he knows who the author is: black or white, choleric or sanguine, married or bachelor.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
I have always preferred joy, gaiety. Cheerfulness is a way of behaving, while joy is a state of mind. Joy is short-lived, joy is permanent and constant.
I do not consider that a man is wasting his time if he does not occupy himself with the affairs of the state. On the contrary, I support the opinion that time is spent more usefully if we occupy ourselves with something that does not make noise, that does not attract attention.
I try to enliven morality with ingenuity and temper ingenuity with morality.
Of one thing we can be more than convinced - if we have our minds and have not lost our desires and senses - all possible fancies and caprices will work at full capacity, and whether we are in society or alone with ourselves, they they will not disappear or cease to operate. In any situation, they will have a field of action.
Everyone, no doubt, seeks happiness, but the question is: do we find it by following the path of nature and yielding to its habitual inclinations, or by suppressing these inclinations and holding it passionately to personal gain, narrow selfishness, or even only to the aspect of protecting life.
Everything is wonderful, everything deserves to be loved, everything fills with joy and gladness, except man and his existential condition, which seems to be far from perfect.
Heroism and humanity are almost one and the same. But it is enough for this feeling to go astray, and the hero who loves humanity turns into a fierce disbeliever: the liberator and the guardian turns into the oppressor and destroyer.
There is no excuse for a bad choice.
For reason, the only hell is passion. For a false judgment is quickly transformed under the influence of passion.
If virtue is neither valuable nor respectable in itself, then I do not see what can be respectable in submitting to it merely for the sake of an advantageous business. If the pleasure of doing good is not itself a good and true inclination, then I do not know whether goodness or virtue is generally possible.
If people can stand talking about their vices, it's already a sign that they're on the way to getting better. The only way to save the sanity of mankind and to maintain the rationality of the world is to give freedom to the sharp mind. Although, a sharp mind will never be free where mockery is forbidden.
He who deals with characters is not allowed not to know his own - otherwise he cannot know anything. And whoever wants to amuse mankind with something useful like this, must first be sure himself that he has first benefited from it. For in this respect it is quite right to say that wisdom and clemency must begin with ourselves.
Suspicious selfishness and baseness are the eternal companions of fear.
There is nothing more foolish and misleading than half-measured skepticism. For as long as doubt clings to one side only, so much more does confidence grow on the other side. One side of the stupidity looks sleazy, and the other swells ever higher and deceives all the more.
No thoughts will prove correct unless they have been used for a proper orientation of themselves, unless they have acquired a definite form before they are expressed. The hardest thing in the world is to be a valuable thinker and an experienced interlocutor in conversations with yourself without having to criticize yourself harshly every time.
The absence of freedom is responsible for the absence of true morals.
Pedantry and Pharisaism are millstones able to destroy any book that comes in contact with their weight. The spirit of the pedant does not react, to the demands of the age - the world wants to be instructed, but does not want to be nursed.