Already at the origin of the species man was equal to what he was destined to become.

The biologist passes. The frog stays the same.

Renown? I've already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt.

It is horrible to see everything that one detested in the past coming back wearing the colors of the future.

One must either take an interest in the human situation or else parade before the void.

Never feel remorse for what you have thought about your wife; she has thought much worse things about you.

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.