Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.[Много несчастий произошло на свете от недоумений и от недосказанности.]
For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.
Enough is so vast a sweetness, I suppose it never occurs, only pathetic counterfeits.
Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them, is not of philosophy, but what is much better, of ignorance.
What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree, and it is from its nature only possible as an episodic phenomenon.[Was man im strengsten Sinne Glück heißt, entspringt der eher plötzlichen Befriedigung hoch aufgestauter Bedürfnisse und ist seiner Natur nach nur als episodisches Phänomen möglich.]
What I always hated and detested and cursed above all things was this contentment, this healthiness and comfort, this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity.
Success is finding satisfaction in giving a little more than you take.
Everything that men do or think concerns the satisfaction of the needs they feel or the escape from pain.
Delight is to him—a far, far upward, and inward delight—who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.
You entertain people who are satisfied. Hungry people can’t be entertained – or people who are afraid. You can’t entertain a man who has no food.
Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.
What a glorious gift is imagination, and what satisfaction it affords!
