One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.

The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too.

At bottom, every state regards another as a gang of robbers who will fall upon it as soon as there is an opportunity.

Truth that is naked is the most beautiful, and the simpler its expression the deeper is the impression it makes; this is partly because it gets unobstructed hold of the hearer’s mind without his being distracted by secondary thoughts, and partly because he feels that here he is not being corrupted or deceived by the arts of rhetoric, but that the whole effect is got from the thing itself.

Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

A man of talent will strive for money and reputation; but the spring that moves genius to the production of its works is not as easy to name