Man is a fighting animal; his thoughts are his banners, and it is a failure of nerve in him if they are only thoughts.

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.

A country without a memory is a country of madmen.

Christianity persecuted, tortured, and burned. Like a hound it tracked the very scent of heresy. It kindled wars, and nursed furious hatreds and ambitions... Man, far from being freed from his natural passions, was plunged into artificial ones quite as violent and much more disappointing.

A musical education is necessary for musical judgement. What most people relish is hardly music; it is rather a drowsy reverie relieved by nervous thrills.

I have no axe to grind; only my thoughts to burnish.

A soul is but the last bubble of a long fermentation in the world.