All mathematical laws which we find in Nature are always suspect to me, in spite of their beauty. They give me no pleasure. They are merely auxiliaries. At close range it is all not true.

Delicacy in woman is strength.

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.

Reading means borrowing.

He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.

Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them.

A sure sign of a good book is that you like it more the older you get.