An abundance of some good things is perfectly compatible with the scarcity of others; that life is everywhere precarious, man everywhere small.

The typical American believes that no necessity of the soul is free and that there are precious few, if any, which cannot be bought.

Not to have known - as most men have not - either the mountain or the desert is not to have known one's self. Not to have known one's self is to have known no one.

Civilizations die from philosophical calm, irony, and a sense of fair play quite as surely as they die of debauchery.

True tragedy may be defined as a dramatic work in which the outward failure of the principal personage is compensated for by the dignity and greatness of his character.

Those whose conscience demands that they defy authority in some ways that involve great consequences must be willing to accept some penalty.

To those who study her, Nature reveals herself as extraordinarily fertile and ingenious in devising means, but she has no ends which the human mind has been able to discover or comprehend.