To make astute people believe one is what one is not is, in most cases, harder than actually to become what one wishes to appear.

To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.

To write brashly about some things, it is almost necessary not to know much about them.

Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.

The "second sight" possessed by the Highlanders in Scotland is actually a foreknowledge of future events. I believe they possess this gift because they don't wear trousers.

One cannot demand of a scholar that he show himself a scholar everywhere in society, but the whole tenor of his behavior must none the less betray the thinker, he must always be instructive, his way of judging a thing must even in the smallest matters be such that people can see what it will amount to when, quietly and self-collected, he puts this power to scholarly use.

The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery.