Good taste is either that which agrees with my taste or that which subjects itself to the rule of reason. From this we can see how useful it is to employ reason in seeking out the laws of taste.

When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?

The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.

Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers the harvest we reaped would be sufficient.

Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.

Man is a masterpiece of creation, if only because no amount of determinism can prevent him from believing that he acts as a free being.

Diogenes, filthily attired, paced across the splendid carpets in Plato's dwelling. Thus, said he, do I trample on the pride of Plato. Yes, Plato replied, but only with another kind of pride.