Pessimism is the one ism which kills the soul.

I believe everything out of the common. The only thing to distrust is the normal.

Without humility there can be no humanity.

Civilisation is a conspiracy.

I believe that all wisdom consists in caring immensely for a few right things, and not caring a straw about the rest.

History gives us a kind of chart, and we dare not surrender even a small rushlight in the darkness. The hasty reformer who does not remember the past will find himself condemned to repeat it.

I would have been content with any job however thankless, in any quarter however remote, if I had a chance of making a corner of the desert blossom and the solitary place glad.