The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.

It would be better if there were nothing. Since there is more pain than pleasure on earth, every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses, and the agony of the devoured animal is always far greater than the pleasure of the devourer

I owe what is best in my own development to the impression made by Kant's works, the sacred writings of the Hindus, and Plato.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it.

A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.

Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law.