History is the long, difficult and confused dream of Mankind.

Consciousness is the mere surface of our minds, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust.

The ultimate foundation of honor is the conviction that moral character is unalterable: a single bad action implies that future actions of the same kind will, under similar circumstances, also be bad.

Patriotism is the passion of fools and the most foolish of passions.

The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.

Our religions will never at any time take root; the ancient wisdom of the human race will not be supplanted by the events in Galilee. On the contrary, Indian wisdom flows back to Europe, and will produce a fundamental change in our knowledge and thought.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.