The eye doesn't see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark or through colors.

Theories are usually the over-hasty efforts of an impatient understanding that would gladly be rid of phenomena, and so puts in their place pictures, notions, nay, often mere words.

An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses.

Wanted: A dog that neither barks nor bites, eats broken glass and shits diamonds.

Prudent and active men, who know their strength and use it with limit and circumspection, alone go far in the affairs of the world.

The important thing is not to know more than all men, but to know more at each moment than any particular man.

The highest happiness, the purest joys of life, wear out at last.