Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

Man is kind enough when he is not excited by religion

...the administration of the law can never go lax where every individual sees to it that it grows not lax in his own case, or in cases which fall under his eyes.

In early times some sufferer had to sit up with a toothache, and he put in the time inventing the German language.

The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice -- and always has been.

If I can capture truth in its simplest form, beauty will follow like a sledgehammer.

Why is it that, among men, physical courage is a trait so plenteous yet moral courage is a trait so rare?