Whoever starts out toward the unknown must consent to venture alone.

It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

There's a law in life: whenever a door closes, a new one will open.

An experience teaches only the good observer; but far from seeking a lesson in it, everyone looks for an argument in experience, and everyone interprets the conclusion in his own way.

Great minds tend toward banality. It is the noblest effort of individualism. But it implies a sort of modesty, which is so rare that it is scarcely found except in the greatest, or in beggars.

The wise man is he who constantly wonders afresh.

The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.