In any close society it is more urgent to restrain others than to be free oneself. Hence the tendency for the central authority to absorb and supersede such as are local or delegated.

Memory itself is an internal rumour.

History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there.

Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations

Every real object must cease to be what it seemed, and none could ever be what the whole soul desired.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

It is a pleasant surprise to him (the pure mathematician) and an added problem if he finds that the arts can use his calculations, or that the senses can verify them, much as if a composer found that sailors could heave better when singing his songs.