Every hero is a Samson. The strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak and the many; and if in the end he loses all patience he crushes both them and himself.

A happy life is impos­si­ble; the best that a man can attain is a heroic life.

Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.

A man of business will often deceive you without the slightest scruple, but he will absolutely refuse to commit a theft.

Mankind cannot get on without a certain amount of absurdity.

Boredom is an evil that is not to be estimated lightly. It can come in the end to real despair. The public authority takes precautions against it everywhere, as against other universal calamities.

The fourfold root of the principle of sufficent reason is "Anything perceived has a cause. All conclusions have premises. All effects have causes. All actions have motives.