We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

A real gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about.

Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once.

It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.

Men do not accept their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and worship those whom they have tortured to death.