Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly hamonized; it is true to life.

Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote.

Everything that happens, happens of necessity.

That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can be accomplished by a machine.

The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.

To truth only a brief celebration of victory is allowed between the two long periods during which it is condemned as paradoxical, or disparaged as trivial.