A people's literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can.

The greater the suffering depicted, the more terrible the events, the more intense our pleasure.

When we speak of beauty, we're speaking of something we're more or less indifferent to.

The suffering of a soul that can suffer greatly -- that and only that, is tragedy.

When I read educational articles it often seems to me that this important side of the matter, the purely personal side, is not emphasized enough; the fact that it is so much more agreeable and interesting to be an educated person than not. The sheer pleasure of being educated does not seem to be stressed.

One form of religion perpetually gives way to another; if religion did not change it would be dead. ... Each time the new ideas appear they are seen at first as a deadly foe threatening to make religion perish from the earth; but in the end there is a deeper insight and a better life with ancient follies and prejudices gone.

When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.