If a man really knew himself he would utterly despise the ignorant notions others might form on a subject in which he had such matchless opportunities for observation.

Any attempt to speak without speaking any particular language is not more hopeless than the attempt to have a religion that shall be no religion in particular.... Every living and healthy religion has a marked idiosyncrasy. Its power consists in its special and surprising message and the bias which that revelation gives to life.

Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason.

Only the dead have seen the end of the war.

Truth is a jewel which should not be painted over; but it may be set to advantage and shown in a good light.

The man who would emancipate art from discipline and reason is trying to elude rationality, not merely in art, but in all existence.

Fear first created the gods.