Superstition belongs to the essence of mankind and takes refuge, when one thinks one has suppressed it completely, in the strangest nooks and crannies; once it is safely ensconced there, it suddenly reappears.

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

It would be a lowly art that allowed itself to be understood all at once.

When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place.

Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

Whatever is the lot of humankind I want to taste within my deepest self. I want to seize the highest and the lowest, to load its woe and bliss upon my breast, and thus expand my single self titanically and in the end go down with all the rest.