I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.

We must watch over our modesty in the presence of those who cannot understand its grounds.

The biologist passes. The frog stays the same.

Prerequisite for rereadability in books: that they be forgettable.

Far too often the choices reality proposes are such as to take away one's taste for choosing.

A body of work such as Pasteur's is inconceivable in our time: no man would be given a chance to create a whole science. Nowadays a path is scarcely opened up when the crowd begins to pour in.

I think I am one of those who can manage not to take on a completely different appearance under their own glance.