Life does not agree with philosophy: There is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable.

• We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.
• There is nothing new in art except talent.
• The wealthy are always surrounded by hangers-on science and art are as well.
• No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are unfair, from year to year he lapses into an embittered state characterized by an extreme lack of faith.
• When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that's science.
• Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.
• The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.
• Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.
• One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.
• To judge between good or bad, between successful and unsuccessful would take the eye of a God.