A cigar can serve as an effective substitute for thought.
A symbol is a center from which many rays proceed, - a picture in which each, from his point of view, sees something else, but at the same time all are convinced that they see one and the same thing.
Tell me when space appeared and its fleeting bride - time; when was their child born - matter, with which came the sufferings of the world? Because together with space began suffering, together with time - death.
No matter how often the surface of the Earth with all living beings is destroyed as a result of cosmic cataclysms, and no matter how many new beings appear - all this is nothing but a change of scenery on the universal stage.
You must refrain from any critical remarks, be they friendly: it is easy to offend a person, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to correct him.
The death of Socrates and the crucifixion of Christ are among the most characteristic of humanity.
With the death of each man, a certain world, which he carried in his mind, also disappears. The more intelligent the mind, the more obvious, the clearer, the more significant the world, and the more terrible its disappearance. With the death of an animal only a miserable rhapsody or a sketch of a world disappears.
Preparing for the journey of life, it is useful to arm ourselves with a large reserve of prudence and forbearance: prudence will protect us from evils and losses, and forbearance - from disputes and quarrels.
Adapting philosophy to authority types and making it a tool for earning money and positions is, in my opinion, the same as sharing yourself for the purpose of satisfying your hunger and thirst.
Compassion is the basis of all morality.
Compassion for animals is so closely connected with goodness of character that it is safe to say that one who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.
A mediocre man is concerned with how to kill his time, and a talented man tends to use it.
The affinity between genius and virtue is based on the following: to erect a monument to a person in his lifetime is to declare that there is no chance of his being forgotten by posterity.
To set an end to one's desires, to curb one's passions, to tame one's anger, always remembering that to each man only a small particle of all that he desires is accessible, and that a multitude of evils and disasters will befall him to each - without observing this rule, neither wealth nor power will prevent us from feeling unhappy and lamentable.
The essence of a genius is measured by the excess of the cognitive powers over the measure required by the necessities of the will. But this definition is only relative. There are people who have cognitive aspirations stronger than will, without being geniuses; they have higher cognitive powers than ordinary people, but their will is too weak, that is, they lack strong desires. They are more concerned with knowledge as such than with its purpose; they have intelligence, talent, a cheerful and contented character, but no genius.
Since the will is not subject to time, remorse does not pass with time, like all other sufferings. Evil torments the conscience even after many years, as painfully as immediately after its commission.
What is in man is undoubtedly more important than what he lacks.
What people call fate is actually a series of follies committed by them.
Only gaiety is a currency of happiness, all others are just credit notes.
Vanity makes a man talkative.
Humans in general have the weakness of trusting superhuman sources more than their own minds.
A crowd has eyes and ears and little else.
A wretch who has nothing to be proud of clings to the only possible thing and is proud of the nation to which he belongs.
Intellectual superiority is acquired through tireless and unceasing activity of the mind. What exactly this activity is directed towards is not essential.
Scientists are those who have read many books; but it is the thinkers, the geniuses, the men of culture, and the movers of the world, who have read directly from the book of the Universe.
Philosophy, strictly speaking, is a desire to know in the imagination what does not belong to the imagination and what is hidden within ourselves.
A characteristic feature of eminent minds is the spontaneity of their opinions and sentences. Everything they produce is the result of their own thinking.
Characters can be good or bad only relatively, because there are no absolute good or bad. The difference between them lies in the extent to which self-interest is preferable to someone else's interest. If this boundary line is located halfway between the two interests, then it is a good character. But in most people it is so unbalanced that for one meter of humanity there are ten meters of selfishness.
Christianity teaches, "Love your neighbor as yourself." And I say: "Know yourself not only in the deed of your neighbor, but also in that of the most distant."
A child's hour is longer than an old man's day.