The average woman is at the head of something with which she can do as she likes; the average man has to obey orders and do nothing else.

A dead thing goes with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

The woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys. On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn’t obeyed.

A small artist is content with art; a great artist is content with nothing except everything.

Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.

If we are bound to improve, we need not trouble to improve. The pure doctrine of progress is the best of all reasons for not being a progressive.

The simple sense of wonder at the shapes of things, and at their exuberant independence of our intellectual standards and our trivial definitions, is the basis of spirituality.