Morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose.

We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value.

Ten times must you laugh during the day, and be cheerful; otherwise your stomach, the father of affliction, will disturb you in the night.

Mediocrity is the most effective mask a superior spirit can wear, because to the great majority, which is to say, to the mediocre,it will not suggest a disguise:--and yet it is precisely for their sake that he puts it on--so as not to arouse them, and, indeed, not infrequently to avoid this out of pity and benevolence.

The man loves danger and sport. That is why he loves woman, the most dangerous of all sports.

The form of a work of art, which gives speech to their thoughts and is, therefore, their mode of talking, is always somewhat uncertain, like all kinds of speech.

The spirit of the poet craves spectators... even if only buffaloes.