I look upon logical proofs the way a well-bred girl looks upon a love letter

Thus the public use of reason and freedom is nothing but a dessert, a sumptuous dessert.

What Tarquin the Proud said in his garden with the poppy blooms was understood by the son but not by the messenger.

The farther reason looks the greater is the haze in which it loses itself.

Poetry is the mother-tongue of the human race.

Everything is vain and tortures the spirit instead of calming and satisfying it.

Self knowledge begins with the neighbor, the mirror, and just the same with true self-love; that goes from the mirror to the matter.