Edgar Saltus > Quotes

“I think our lives are surely but the dreams
Of spirits, dwelling in the distant spheres,
Who as we die, do one by one awake.”
― Edgar Saltus, Poppies and Mandragora

“Briefly, then, life, to the pessimist, is a motiveless desire, a constant pain and continued struggle, followed by death, and so on, in secula seculorum, until the planet’s crust crumbles to dust.”
― Edgar Saltus, The Philosophy of Disenchantment

“But to such a man as Schopenhauer,—one who considered five sixths of the population to be knaves or blockheads, and who had thought out a system for the remaining fraction,—to such a man as he, the question of esteem, or the lack thereof, was of small consequence. He cared nothing for the existence which he led in the minds of other people. To his own self he was true, to the calling of his destiny constant, and he felt that he could sit and snap his fingers at the world, knowing that Time, who is at least a gentleman, would bring him his due unasked.”
― Edgar Saltus, The Philosophy of Disenchantment

“As a general rule, nine tenths of happiness may be said to rest on the state of health; when this is perfect, anything and everything may be a source of pleasure; in illness, on the other hand, nothing, no matter what its nature may be, is capable of affording any real enjoyment.”
― Edgar Saltus, The Philosophy of Disenchantment

“To say that he hated it would be unjust, for, like most sensible people, he held hatred to be an elixir far too precious to be wasted on trivial matters.”
― Edgar Saltus, The Philosophy of Disenchantment

“Emerson recommended us to treat people as though they were real, and added, "Perhaps they are.”
― Edgar Saltus