What eludes logic is the most precious element in us, and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.

The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious.

The miser puts his gold pieces into a coffer; but as soon as the coffer is closed, it is as if it were empty.

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.

A man thinks he owns things, and it is he who is owned

Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.

Mozart's joy is made of serenity, and a phrase of his music is like a calm thought; his simplicity is merely purity. It is a crystalline thing in which all the emotions play a role, but as if already celestially transposed. Moderation consists in feeling emotions as the angels do.