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.

The mind of the Renaissance was not a pilgrim mind, but a sedentary city mind, like that of the ancients.

Habit is stronger than reason.

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

The mediocrity of everything in the great world of today is simply appalling. We live in intellectual slums.

It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.

The theater, for all its artifices, depicts life in a sense more truly than history.