Arthur Schopenhauer

"Faith is like love: it does not let itself be forced."

"Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think."

"Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure"

"One should use common words to say uncommon things"

"How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do."

"For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible"

"Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it."

"Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think."

"We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people."

"Qualsiasi uomo notevole, chiunque cioè non appartenga a quei 5/6 dell'umanità dotati tanto miseramente dalla natura, rimarrà dopo i quarant'anni difficilmente esente da una certa traccia di misantropia."

"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free."

"We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success."

"Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think."

"They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person."

"Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude"

"A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man"

"After your death, you will be what you were before your birth."

"Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness."

"Compassion is the basis of morality."

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see."