Religion cannot sink lower than when somehow it is raised to a state religion ... It becomes then an avowed mistress.

In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides.

It is only kindred griefs that draw forth our tears, and each weeps really for himself.

Everywhere that a great soul gives utterance to its thoughts, there also is a Golgotha.

From every Englishman emanates a kind of gas, the deadly choke-damp of boredom.

Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

At noon I feel as though I could devour all the elephants of Hindostan, and then pick my teeth with the spire of Strasburg cathedral; in the evening I become so sentimental that I would fain drink up the Milky Way without reflecting how indigestible I should find the little fixed stars, and by night there is the Devil himself broke loose in my head and no mistake.