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.

Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it.

The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.

Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle.

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

He marvelled at the fact that the cats had two holes cut in their fur at precisely the spot where their eyes were.

A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out.