One must not forget that recovery is brought about not by the physician, but by the sick man himself. He heals himself, by his own power, exactly as he walks by means of his own power, or eats, or thinks, breathes or sleeps.
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A schoolteacher or professor cannot educate individuals, he educates only species.
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First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.
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A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.
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Despair, night in the grieving senses.
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Revolution calls my name. I will soon dwell in nothingness, and my name will be in the Pantheon of history.
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We are always on stage, even when we are stabbed in earnest at the end.
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The stars are scattered all over the sky like shimmering tears, there must be great pain in the eye from which they trickled.
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The death clock is ticking slowly in our breast, and each drop of blood measures its time, and our life is a lingering fever.
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So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profundity very similar to the reputation for sanctity possessed by theologians.
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Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.
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To be content with life -- or to live merrily, rather --all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow.
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Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age.
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With a pen in my hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed.
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I'll know how to die with courage; that is easier than living.
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It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar -- that I call an achievement.
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The strides of humanity are slow, they can only be counted in centuries.
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If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
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Many have been ruined by their fortunes, and many have escaped ruin by the want of fortune. To obtain it the great have become little, and the little great.
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The statue of Freedom has not been cast yet, the furnace is hot, we can all still burn our fingers.
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What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
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Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war?
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Open your mouth and purse cautiously, and your stock of wealth and reputation shall, at least in repute, be great.
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Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.
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Your words smell of corpses.
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The most perfect ape cannot draw an ape; only man can do that; but, likewise, only man regards the ability to do this as a sign of superiority.
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One is rarely an impulsive innovator after the age of sixty, but one can still be a very fine orderly and inventive thinker. One rarely procreates children at that age, but one is all the more skilled at educating those who have already been procreated, and education is procreation of another kind.
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Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.
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It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people's attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.
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He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.
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