The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources

He who serves the public is a poor animal; he worries himself to death and no one thanks him for it.

We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives.

He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent.

For usually people resist as long as they can to dismiss the fool they harbor in their bosom, they resist to confess a major mistake or to admit a truth that makes them despair.

A human being needs only a small plot of ground on which to be happy, and even less to lie beneath.