Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
Death is the release from all pain and complete cessation, beyond which our suffering will not follow. It will return us to that condition of tranquility, which we had enjoyed before we were born. Should anyone mourn the deceased, then he must also mourn the unborn.
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
All art is but imitation of nature.
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples? There are no limits to our greed, none to our cruelty. And as long as such crimes are committed by stealth and by individuals, they are less harmful and less portentous; but cruelties are practised in accordance with acts of senate and popular assembly, and the public is bidden to do that which is forbidden to the individual. Deeds that would be punished by loss of life when committed in secret, are praised by us because uniformed generals have carried them out. Man, naturally the gentlest class of being, is not ashamed to revel in the blood of others, to wage war, and to entrust the waging of war to his sons, when even dumb beasts and wild beasts keep the peace with one another. Against this overmastering and widespread madness philosophy has become a matter of greater effort, and has taken on strength in proportion to the strength which is gained by the opposition forces.
You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
All cruelty springs from weakness.
A great fortune is a great slavery.
It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.
A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent.
The best ideas are common property.
He who profits by crime commits it.
The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.
A great step towards independence is a good-humored stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment.
Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
Worse than war is the fear of war.
He who does not prevent crime when he can encourages it.
He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.
