We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.

When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.

Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.

Nothing is thoroughly approved but mediocrity. The majority has established this, and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.

The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.

We are never in search of things, but always in search of the search.

Let man then contemplate the whole of nature in her full and grand majesty... No idea approaches it. We may enlarge our conceptions beyond all imaginable space; we only produce atoms in comparison with the reality of things. It is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.