A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety nine retreat; That is progress.

The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms.

The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. Mystery on the other hand is demanded and pursued by the religious instinct; mystery constitutes the essence of worship, the power of proselytism.

Men prefer the false due to habit, passion, will. Preference for truth is rare. Men are ruled by their fear of truth.

Men of genius supply the substance of history, while the mass of men are but the critical filter, the limiting, slackening, passive force needed for the modification of ideas supplied by genius.

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.

The art which is grand and yet simple is that which presupposes the greatest elevation both in artist and in public.