Don't judge a book by its cover

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.

He who rules must fully humor as much as he commands.

"Heaven help us," said the old religion; the new one, from its very lack of that faith, will teach us all the more to help one another.

It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self.

With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader.

That by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil -- widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower.