So long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity.

Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.

But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year-old habits.

They establish distinctions and reserves which I cannot apply to myself, for I exist only as a whole; my only claim is to be natural, and the pleasure I feel in an action, I take as a sign that I ought to do it.

Atheism. There is not a single exalting and emancipating influence that does not in turn become inhibitory.

Only fools don't contradict themselves

I prefer granting with a good grace what I know I shan't be able to prevent.