The right man is the one who seizes the moment.

The miller imagines that the corn grows only to make his mill turn.

He only fears men who does not know them, and he who avoids them will soon misjudge them.

A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.

Is this the destiny of man? Is he only happy before he has acquired his reason or after he has lost it?

The misfortune in the state is, that nobody can enjoy life in peace, but that everybody must govern; and in art, that nobody will enjoy what has been produced, but that every one wants to reproduce on his own account.

The highest goal that man can achieve is amazement.