The absence of temptation is the absence of virtue.

Nothing is more disgusting than the majority: because it consists of a few powerful predecessors, of rogues who adapt themselves, of weak who assimilate themselves, and the masses who imitate without knowing at all what they want.

We are not all equal, nor can we be so.

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

Idea and experience will never coincide in the center; only through art and action are they united.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.