It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.

The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.

No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that what has been written latest is always the more correct; that what is written later on is an improvement on what was written previously; and that every change means progress.

Religion is the metaphysics of the masses.

The old woman dies, the burden is lifted.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.