Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.

In a man devoted to knowledge, pity seems almost ridiculous, like delicate hands on a cyclops.

The more a person indulges himself the less others are willing to indulge him.

I am too inquisitive, too skeptical, too arrogant, to let myself be satisfied with an obvious and crass solution of things. God is such an obvious and crass solution; a solution which is a sheer indelicacy to us thinkers - at bottom He is really nothing but a coarse commandment against us: ye shall not think!

To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.

Many die too late, and some die too early. Yet strangers soundeth the precept: "Die at the right time!"

Among twelve apostles there must always be one who is as hard as stone, so that the new church may be built upon him.