It is a sad mission to cut through and destroy with the scissors of analysis the delicate and iridescent veils with which our proud mediocrity clothes itself.

Genius is one of the many forms of insanity.

The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand

God and I both knew what it meant once; now God alone knows.

The appearance of a single great genius is more than equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities

Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses

Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius, never. And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so ready to treat great men as lunatics.