That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me.

There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

Our moral virtues benefit mainly other people; intellectual virtues, on the other hand, benefit primarily ourselves; therefore the former make us universally popular, the latter unpopular.

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

To form a judgment intuitively is the privilege of few; authority and example lead the rest of the world. They see with the eyes of others, they hear with the ears of others. Therefore it is very easy to think as all the world now think; but to think as all the world will think thirty years hence is not in the power of every one.