There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal.

To turn events into ideas is the function of literature.

Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.

Saints cannot arise where there have been no warriors, nor philosophers where a prying beast does not remain hidden in the depths.

A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.

To be boosted by an illusion is not to live better than to live in harmony with the truth ... these refusals to part with a decayed illusion are really an infection to the mind.

It would be hard to conceive a system of instincts more nicely adjusted, where the constituents should represent or support one another better. The husband has an interest in protecting the wife, she in serving the husband. The weaker gains in authority and safety, the wilder and more unconcerned finds a help-mate at home to take thought of his daily necessities. Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.