To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography.

Better not be a hero than work oneself up into heroism by shouting lies.

Memory itself is an internal rumour.

Historical investigation has for its aim to fix the order and character of events throughout past time and in all places. The task is frankly superhuman.

The effort of art is to keep what is interesting in existence, to recreate it in the eternal.

The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others.

It is pathetic to observe how lowly the motives are that religion, even the highest, attributes to the deity... To be given the best morsel, to be remembered, to be praised, to be obeyed blindly and punctiliously - these have been thought points of honor with the gods.