If reason be a gift of Heaven, and we can say as much of faith, Heaven has certainly made us two gifts not only incompatible, but in direct contradiction to each other. In order to solve the difficulty, we are compelled to say either that faith is a chimera or that reason is useless.

I discuss with myself questions of politics, love, taste, or philosophy. I let my mind rove wantonly, give it free rein to followany idea, wise or mad that may present itself. My ideas are my harlots.

Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.

How old the world is! I walk between two eternities.... What is my fleeting existence in comparison with that decaying rock, that valley digging its channel ever deeper, that forest that is tottering and those great masses above my head about to fall? I see the marble of tombs crumbling into dust; and yet I don't want to die!

Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.

If you disturb the colors of the rainbow, the rainbow is no longer beautiful.

Which is the greater merit, to enlighten the human race, which remains forever, or to save one's fatherland, which is perishable?