You talk of our having an idea; we do not have an idea. The idea has us, and martyrs us, and scourges us, and drives us into the arena to fight and die for it, whether we want to or not.

I have never seen an ass who talked like a human being, but I have met many human beings who talked like asses.

It must require an inordinate share of vanity and presumption, too, after enjoying so much that is good and beautiful on earth, to ask the Lord for immortality in addition to it all.

Music is a strange thing. I would almost say it is a miracle.

In earlier religions the spirit of the time was expressed through the individual and confirmed by miracles. In modern religions the spirit is expressed through the many and confirmed by reason.

I do not know if she was virtuous, but she was ugly, and with a woman that is half the battle.

Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too.