The passions are like those demons with which Afrasahiab sailed down the Orus. Our only safety consists in keeping them asleep. If they we are lost.

I have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me.

Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly acheive in an age.

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

I wish the stage were as narrow as the wire of a tighrope dancer so that no incompetent would dare step upon it.

Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.

One never goes so far as when one doesn't know where one is going.