Even the most inspired verse, which boasts not without a relative justification to be immortal, becomes in the course of ages a scarcely legible hieroglyphic; the language it was written in dies, a learned education and an imaginative effort are requisite to catch even a vestige of its original force. Nothing is so irrevocable as mind.

The God to whom depth in philosophy bring back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them

It would hardly be possible to exaggerate man's wretchedness if it were not so easy to overestimate his sensibility

There is no tyranny so hateful as a vulgar and anonymous tyranny. It is all-permeating, all-thwarting; it blasts every budding novelty and sprig of genius with its omnipresent and fierce stupidity. Such a headless people has the mind of a worm and the claws of a dragon.

When all beliefs are challenged together, the just and necessary ones have a chance to step forward and re-establish themselves alone.

All spiritual interests are supported by animal life.

To fight is a radical instinct; if men have nothing else to fight over they will fight over words, fancies, or women, or they will fight because they dislike each other's looks, or because they have met walking in opposite directions.