I despise mystics, they fancy themselves so deep, when they aren't even superficial.

Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

“Evil men have no songs.” How is it, then, that the Russians have songs?

We must beware of one who is in a passion against us as of one who has once sought our life; for the fact that we still live is due to the absence of power to kill, - if looks could kill, we should have been dead long ago.

Nobody thanks a witty man for politeness when he puts himself on a par with a society in which it would not be polite to show one's wit.

Nothing ever succeeds which exuberant spirits have not helped to produce.