We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

Legislators and revolutionaries who promise both equality and liberty are visionaries and charlatans.

What dazzles, for the moment spends its spirit; Whats genuine, shall posterity inherit.

A man's foibles are what makes him lovable.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

Just as, out of habit, one consults a run-down clock as though it were still going, so too one may look at the face of a beautiful woman as though he still loved her.

It is not given to us to grasp the truth, which is identical with the divine, directly. We perceive it only in reflection, in example and symbol, in singular and related appearances. It meets us as a kind of life which is incomprehensible to us, and yet we cannot free ourselves from the desire to comprehend it.