The only gain of civilisation for mankind is the greater capacity for variety of sensations - and absolutely nothing more.

A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.

The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano key.

But man is a fickle and disreputable creature and perhaps, like a chess-player, is interested in the process of attaining his goal rather than the goal itself.

I am alone, I thought, and they are everybody.

It is a law of nature that every decent man on earth is bound to be a coward and a slave

I will put up with any mockery rather than pretend that I am satisfied when I am hungry.

For though your mind is active enough, your heart is darkened with corruption, and without a pure heart there can be no full or genuine sensibility.

Man is fond of reckoning up his troubles, but does not count his joys.

What does reason know? Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning...

Man only likes counting his grief, he doesn't count his happiness. But if he were to count properly, he'd see that there's enough of both lots for him.

Nature is wont to hide herself.

Pain is G-d's megaphone to wake up the world.

When an individual does not become conscious of their inner contradictions, the world acts out the conflict and is torn in opposite halves.

Serve a noble disposition, though poore, the time comes that hee will repay thee.

Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point.

I never divide photographers into creative and uncreative, I just call them photographers. Who is creative? How do you know who is creative or not?

The free software community should be supported more widely. I’m totally in solidarity with what they do.

I wanted a fake wedding in Jamaica.

No man chooses evil because it's evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

God is the ever active providence, by whose power systems after systems are being evolved out of chaos, made to run for a time and again destroyed.