Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.

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All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

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A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.

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The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

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It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

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Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.

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What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity

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If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked.

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Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.

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You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.

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