What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing between it and those whom it oppresses? A government that pretends to be Christian and crucifies a million Christs every day!

It is an unfortunate discovery certainly, that of a law which binds us where we did not know before that we were bound.

Who that has heard a strain of music feared then lest he should speak extravagantly any more forever?

The nonchalance and dolce-far-niente air of nature and society hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind.

I know very well what Goethe meant when he said that he never had a chagrin but he made a poem out of it. I have altogether too much patience of this kind.

Many old people receive pensions for no other reason, it seems to me, but as a compensation for having lived a long time ago.

Long enough I had heard of irrelevant things; now at length I was glad to make acquaintance with the light that dwells in rotten wood. Where is all your knowledge gone to? It evaporates completely, for it has no depth.