Genuine witticisms surprise those who say them as much as those who listen to them; they arise in us in spite of us, or, at least, without our participation,--like everything inspired.

To reason, to argue. It is to walk with crutches in search of the truth. We come to it with a leap.

Ornaments were invented by modesty.

We measure minds by their stature; it would be better to esteem them by their beauty.

Reason is a bee, and exists only on what it makes; his usefulness takes the place of beauty.

The voice is a human sound which nothing inanimate can perfectly imitate. It has an authority and an insinuating property which writing lacks. It is not merely so much air, but air modulated and impregnated with life.

Antiquity! I like its ruins better than its reconstructions.