Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out.

It’s easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.

A good upbringing means not that you won’t spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t notice it when someone else does.

A fiance is neither this nor that: he’s left one shore, but not yet reached the other.

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can’t be cured.

The only difference between doctors and lawyers is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you, too.

Man is what he believes.

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

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.

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

Only entropy comes easy.

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.

Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.

The University brings out all abilities, including incapability.

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.

Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

All of life and human relations have become so incomprehensibly complex that, when you think about it, it becomes terrifying and your heart stands still.

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

When an actor has money he doesn’t send letters, he sends telegrams.

If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.

Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.

Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, will not appear every day in my sky.

A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.

The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.

There is nothing new in art except talent.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

To judge between good or bad, between successful and unsuccessful would take the eye of a God.

When a woman isn’t beautiful, people always say, ‘You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.’

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.

Advertising is the very essence of democracy.

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.

If you cry ‘forward’, you must without fail make plain in what direction to go.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.

Reason and justice tell me there’s more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit.

No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand… Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

To advise is not to compel.