Quote collection
824 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The epitaph that I would write for history would say: I conceal nothing. It is not enough not to lie. One should strive not to lie in a negative sense by remaining silent."
"Each man lives for himself, uses his freedom to achieve his personal goals, and feels with his whole being that right now he can or cannot do such-and-such an action; but as soon as he does it, this action, committed at a certain moment in time, becomes irreversible, and makes itself the property of history, in which is has not a free but a predestined significance."
"The best method for a given teacher is the one which is most familiar to the teacher."
"Perhaps it is even more important to know what one should not think about than what one should think about."
"Man is meant for happiness and this happiness is in him, in the satisfaction of the daily needs of his existence."
"Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn."
"The possibility of killing one's self is a safety valve. Having it, man has no right to say life is unbearable."
"Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won't come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn."
"We should show life neither as it is or as it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams."
"In vain do science and philosophy pose as the arbiters of the human mind, of which they are in fact only the servants. Religion has provided a conception of life, and science travels in the beaten path. Religion reveals the meaning of life, and science only applies this meaning to the course of circumstances."
"Can it be that I have overlooked something, that there is something which I have failed to understand? Is it not possible that this state of despair is common to everyone?"
"Then we should find some artificial inoculation against love, as with smallpox."
"Division of labor is a justification for sloth."
"The law of violence is not a law, but a simple fact which can only be a law when it does not meet with protest and opposition. It is like the cold, darkness and weight, which people had to put up with until recently when warmth, illumination and leverage were discovered."
"By patriotism is meant, not only spontaneous, instinctive love for one's own nation, and preference for it above all other nations, but also the belief that such love and preference are good and useful."
"At the approach of danger two voices speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it and the other, even more reasonable, says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger... better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second."
"The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God."
"Through the influence of real art, aided by science, guided by religion... peaceful co-operation of man is now obtained by external means - by law courts, police, charitable institutions, factory inspections... It should be obtained by man's free and joyous activity."
"Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal."
"The activity of art is... as important as the activity of language itself, and as universal."