I constantly saw the false and the bad, and finally the absurd and the senseless, standing in universal admiration and honour.

A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations.

If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the miseries of boredom.

There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted.

The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it.

The truth can wait, for it lives a long life.

The man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as if he were ascending; he only sees the earth sinking deeper below him.