There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

A donkey appears to me like a horse translated into Dutch.

Ambition and suspicion always go together.

We often have need of a profound philosophy to restore to our feelings their original state of innocence, to find our way out of the rubble of things alien to us, to begin to feel for ourselves and to speak ourselves, and I might almost say to exist ourselves.

The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and undoes the most carefully planned undertaking. The world's greatest events are not produced, they happen.

Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on ahead and reconnoiter the ground which the heavy brigade of the orthodox will eventually occupy.

It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.