The rising and falling of the scales of pride and humility sustain the brooding mind as well as the alternations of desire and peace of the soul.

The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature--: and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.

The life of the enemy . Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy's staying alive.

Respectability offends my taste.

Modern science has as its object as little pain as possible, as long a life as possible - hence a sort of eternal blessedness, but of a very limited kind in comparison with the promises of religion.

Give me today, for once, the worst throw of your dice, destiny. Today I transmute everything into gold.

In the knowledge of truth, what really matters is the possession of it, not the impulse under which it was sought.