In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.

Science had better not free the minds of men too much, before it has tamed their instincts.

If a given scientist had not made a given discovery, someone else would have done so a little later. Johann Mendel dies unknown after having discovered the laws of heredity: thirty-five years later, three men rediscover them. But the book that is not written will never be written. The premature death of a great scientist delays humanity; that of a great writer deprives it.

Stupidity, outrage, vanity, cruelty, iniquity, bad faith, falsehood - we fail to see the whole array when it is facing in the same direction as we.

Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind.

I prefer the honest jargon of reality to the outright lies of books.

Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said.