Aphorisms
“Man is a mystery. It needs to be unraveled, and if you
spend your whole life unravelling it, don’t say that you’ve
wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to
be a human being.”
“Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love
with suffering . . .”
“Man never forgets two faces. 1. The one who leaves him
during his bad time. 2. The one who helps him during his
bad time.”
“Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not
count his joys.”
“Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate
his happiness.”
“Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant
and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible
someone to worship.”
“Mankind will be shocked when we come to know the true
nature and ugliness of the Idols which we considered
respectable, honorable, and noble.”
“Manners are the happy way of doing things; each once a
stroke of genius or of love-now repeated and hardened
into usage. They form at last a rich varnish, with which
the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If
they are superficial, so are the dewdrops which give such
depth to the morning meadows.”
“Many can read but only few may understand. Read
between lines.”
162