Where I cannot be moral, my power is gone.

The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.

Self knowledge is best learned not by contemplation, but by action.

A man would create another man if one did not already exist, but a woman might live an eternity without even thinking of reproducing her own sex.

One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is the intermixing of different genres.

He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.

There are few who have at once thought and capacity for action. Thought expands, but lames; action animates, but narrows.