“Truth, like gold, is not to be obtained by growth but by the washing away of all that is not gold.”
“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”
“If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”
“If you want to be happy, be.”
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”
“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking…”
“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.”
“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.”
“We are asleep until we fall in love!”
“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.”
“Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.”
“Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself. ”