Dare to think for yourself.
It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part.
God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.
Society therefore is an ancient as the world.
It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.
Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.
Life too near paralyses art.
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.
The key to the age may be this, or that, or the other, as the young orators describe; the key to all ages is – Imbecility; imbecility in the vast majority of men, at all times, and, even in heroes, in all but certain eminent moments; victims of gravity, custom, and fear.
The greatest man in history was the poorest.
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice…
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.
Security will produce danger.
In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.
Let us work without theorizing, tis the only way to make life endurable.
