Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.

I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.

Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

Ghost stories are always listened to and well received in private, but pitilessly disavowed in public. For my own part, ignorant as I am of the way in which the human spirit enters the world and the way in which he goes out of it, I dare not deny the truth of many such narratives.

[A ruler is merely] the trustee of the rights of other men and he must always stand in dread of having in some way violated these rights.

Among all nations, through the darkest polytheism glimmer some faint sparks of monotheism.

Reason should investigate its own parameters before declaring its omniscience.