Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.

Laws change more slowly than custom, and though dangerous when they fall behind the times are more dangerous still when they presume to anticipate custom.

The world is big … May it please the One who perchance is to expand the human heart to life's full measure.

I have come to think that great men are characterized precisely by the extreme position which they take, and that their heroism consists in holding to that extremity throughout their lives.

This city belongs to ghosts, to murderers, to sleepwalkers. Where are you, in what bed, in what dream?

We say: mad with joy. We should say: wise with grief.

Everything turns out to be valuable that one does for one’s self without thought of profit.