“If we prevented the discontented, atrabilious and sullen from propagating themselves, we could magically transform the earth into a garden of happiness. This proposition belongs to a practical philosophy for the female sex.”

—Human, All Too Human, “Assorted Opinions and Maxims,” §278.

“The men of the ancient world employed all their abundance of ingenuity and capacity to reflect for the continual creation of new occasions for happiness and celebration, whereas we employ our minds towards the amelioration of suffering and the removal of the sources of pain. They sought to be forgetful of suffering or convert their bad feelings into pleasurable ones. Perhaps by attacking the cause of suffering we are only constructing the foundations upon which men of the future will again erect the temple of joy.”

—Human, All Too Human, “Assorted Opinions and Maxims,” §187 (edited).

“The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness.”

—Human, All Too Human, “Assorted Opinions and Maxims,” §77.

“When we observe how some people know how to manage their experiences, we are in the end tempted to divide mankind into a minority of those who know how to make much of little, and a majority of those who know how to make little of much.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §627 (edited excerpt).

“Some men are so accustomed to being alone that they do no compare themselves with others at all but spin out their life of monologue in a calm and cheerful mood. Should they compare themselves with others, they are inclined to a brooding underestimation of themselves, feeling to acquire a good and just opinion from others. We must allow such men their solitude and not pity them for it.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §625 (edited).

“To elude boredom man either works harder than is required to satisfy his other needs or he invents play, but he may become tired of play and longs for a third condition which stands in the same relation to play as floating does to dancing and dancing to walking. This third condition is a state of serene agitation; the vision of happiness for the artist and the philosopher.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §611 (edited excerpt).

“Life consists of rare individual moments of the highest significance and countless intervals in which at best the phantoms of those moments hover about us.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §586 (excerpt).

“Fellow rejoicing, not suffering, makes the friend.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §499.

“It is the privilege of greatness to give great delight with meager gifts.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §496.

“There is one thing one has to have: either a cheerful disposition by nature or a disposition made cheerful by art and knowledge.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §486.

“An age of happiness is quite impossible, because men want only to desire it but not have it, and every individual who experiences good times learns to downright pray for misery and disquietude. The destiny of man is designed  for happy moments but not for happy ages.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §471 (edited excerpt).

“The best means of coming to the aid of people who suffer greatly from embarrassment and of calming them down is to single them out for praise.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §301.

“The thirst for equality can express itself either as a desire to draw everyone down to oneself (by diminishing them, spying on them and tripping them up) or to raise oneself and everyone else up (by recognizing their virtues, helping them and rejoicing in their success).”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §300 (edited).

“He who wants to harvest happiness and contentment from life has only to avoid acquiring a higher culture.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §277 (excerpt).

“In almost every place there is happiness, there is pleasure in nonsense.”

—Human, All Too Human: Vol. 1, §213 (edited excerpt).