“It is only by historical analysis that we can discover what makes up man, since it is only in the course of history that he is formed.”

We do not condemn it because it is a crime, but it is a crime because we condemn it.

I can be free only to the extent that others are forbidden to profit from their physical, economic, or other superiority to the detriment of my liberty.

Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the pleasure taken in them naturally has a somewhat melancholy character.

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt.

The term suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result

Even one well-made observation will be enough in many cases, just as one well-constructed experiment often suffices for the establishment of a law.

Each new generation is reared by its predecessor; the latter must therefore improve in order to improve its successor. The movement is circular.

The Christian conceives of his abode on Earth in no more delightful colors than the Jainist sectarian. He sees in it only a time of sad trial; he also thinks that his true country is not of this world.

If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.

Man is only a moral being because he lives in society, since morality consists in solidarity with the group, and varies according to that solidarity. Cause all social life to vanish, and moral life would vanish at the same time, having no object to cling to.

It is science, and not religion, which has taught men that things are complex and difficult to understand.

When man discovered the mirror, he began to lose his soul.

The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. His passions are mere appearances, being sterile. They are dissipated in futile imaginings, producing nothing external to themselves.

When morals are sufficient, law is unnecessary; when morals are insufficient, law is unenforceable.

Maniacal suicide. -This is due to hallucinations or delirious conceptions. The patient kills himself to escape from an imaginary danger or disgrace, or to obey a mysterious order from on high, etc.

To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.

There is philosophy, which is about conceptual analysis – about the meaning of what we say – and there is all of this … all of life.

I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.

Not even analysis, by itself, can transform you. You must still do the changing yourself.

Government, in it’s last analysis, is organized force.

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.

Without analysis, no synthesis.

I’m the first to admit this whole salary thing is getting out of control. In the final analysis, it’s still about the work.

A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.