Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits, that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself.

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

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.

Music is the answer to the mystery of life. The most profound of all the arts, It expresses the deepest thoughts of life.

A man may call to mind the face of his friend, but not his own. Here, then, is an initial difficulty in the way of applying the maxim, Know Thyself.

The ordinary method of education is to imprint ideas and opinions, in the strict sense of the word, prejudices, on the mind of the child, before it has had any but a very few particular observations. It is thus that he afterwards comes to view the world and gather experience through the medium of those ready-made ideas, rather than to let his ideas be formed for him out of his own experience of life, as they ought to be.

Religion is the metaphysics of the masses.