When shall we see poets born? After a time of disasters and great misfortunes, when harrowed nations begin to breathe again. And then, shaken by the terror of such spectacles, imaginations will paint things entirely strange to those who have not witnessed them.

We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop the truth which is bitter to us.

Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism.

Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.

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.

What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it.

The enjoyment of freedom which could be exercised without any motivation would be the real hallmark of a maniac.