Commonplaceness, the surrender to the average, that good which is not bad but still the enemy of the best - That is our besetting danger.

Faust: Who holds the devil, let him hold him well, He hardly will be caught a second time.

Everything in science depends on what one calls an aperçu, on becoming aware of what is at the bottom of the phenomena. Such becoming aware is infinitely fertile.

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, "Were he living I would make him a king;" but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine.

Master and Doctor are my titles; for ten years now, without repose, I held my erudite recitals and led my pupils by the nose.

The greatest happiness for the thinking person is to have explored the explorable and to venerate in equanimity that which cannotbe explored.