Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer.

History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten.

Every nation thinks its own madness normal and requisite; more passion and more fancy it calls folly, less it calls imbecility.

There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal.

If all art aspires to the condition of music, all the sciences aspire to the condition of mathematics.

To condemn spontaneous and delightful occupations because they are useless for self-preservation shows an uncritical prizing of life irrespective of its content.

Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.