Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

There is such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively faint; it is conservatism here. It says, forsake not your calling, outrage no institution, use no violence, rend no bonds; the State is thy parent. Its virtue or manhood is wholly filial.

The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.

Really, there is no infidelity, nowadays, so great as that which prays, and keeps the Sabbath, and rebuilds the churches. The sealer of the South Pacific preaches a truer doctrine.

We inspire friendship in men when we have contracted friendship with the gods.

You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the appearance and not the reality?

Music never stops; it is only the listening that is intermittent.