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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The present is the only reality and the only certainty.

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What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity

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The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.

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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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The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.

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

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

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

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