We must recognize the eloquence of our passions and refuse to be taken in. Instead of saying, 'That false friend always did despise me,' say: 'In my present state of agitation, I can't see clearly, I can't judge clearly; I am only a tragic actor who is declaiming for his own ears.' Then you will see the lights in the theater go out for lack of an audience, and the brilliant sets will be nothing more than painted cardboard.

Two things are aesthetically perfect in the world - the clock and the cat.

Every idea I get I have to deny, that's my way of testing it.

It is not difficult to be unhappy or discontented; all you have to do is sit down, like a prince waiting to be amused. ... It is impossible to be happy if one does not have the desire to be happy; one must therefore will one's happiness, and create it.

If religion is only human, and its form is man's form, it follows that everything in religion is true.

Wouldn't a sailor laugh at you if you told him that the whole crossing depends on the first turn of the helm?

There are only two kinds of scholars; those who love ideas and those who hate them.