Professor Quotes

“Books for general reading always smell bad; the odor of common people hangs around them.”

“For those who need consolation no means of consolation is so effective as the assertion that in their case no consolation is possible: it implies so great a degree of distinction that they at once hold up their heads again.”

“The patient. The pine tree seems to listen, the fir tree to wait: and both without impatience: - they give no thought to the little people beneath them devoured by their impatience and their curiosity.”

“The state lies in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it says, it lies-and whatever it has, it has stolen.”

“I am really very, very tired of everything - more than tired.”

“Robinson had a servant even better than Friday: His name was Crusoe.”

“There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.”

“The rights which a man arrogates to himself are relative to the duties which he sets himself, and to the tasks which he feels capable of performing.”

“That which intoxicates, the sensually ecstatic, the sudden surprise, the urge to be profoundly stirred at any price -- dreadful tendencies!”

“Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.”

“Man is more sensitive to the contempt that others feel towards him than to the contempt that he feels towards himself.”

“In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.”

“After all, what would be "beautiful" if the contradiction had not first become conscious of itself, if the ugly had not first said to itself: "I am ugly"?.”

“After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.”

“Existence begins in every instant.”

“Do not be deceived! The busiest people harbor the greatest weariness, their restlessness is weakness--they no longer have the capacity for waiting and idleness.”

“Among the wealthy, generosity is often merely a kind of shyness.”

“The condition that gives birth to a rule is not the same as the condition to which the rule gives birth.”

“No, life has not disappointed me. On the contrary, I find it truer, more desirable and mysterious every year -- ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life could be an experiment of the seeker for knowledge -- and not a duty, not a calamity, not trickery.”

“Sensuality often makes love grow too quickly, so that the root remains weak and is easy to pull out.”

“Read from a distant star, the majuscule script of our earthly existence would perhaps lead to the conclusion that the earth was the distinctively ascetic planet, a nook of disgruntled, arrogant creatures filled with a profound disgust with themselves, at the earth, at all life, who inflict as much pain on themselves as they possibly can out of pleasure in inflicting pain which is probably their only pleasure.”

“The criminal type is the type of the strong human being under unfavorable circumstances: a strong human being made sick.”

“Weariness is the shortest path to equality and fraternity-and finally liberty is bestowed by sleep.”

“Assuming that we have trained our imagination to denounce the past, we will not suffer much from unfulfilled wishes.”

“Remorse.-- Never yield to remorse, but at once tell yourself: remorse would simply mean adding to the first act of stupidity a second.”