In truth, I was so good at being a man, with such plenitude and simplicity, that I thought I was something of a superman.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

The only deep emotion I occasionally felt in these affairs was gratitude, when all was going well and I was left, not only peace, but freedom to come and go--never kinder and gayer with one woman than when I had just left another's bed, as if I extended to all others the debt I had just contracted toward one of them.

Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.

Here lives a free man. Nobody serves him.

After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books.

The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action.