Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.

To philosophize is to learn to die.

A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.

Lay a beam between these two towers of such width as we need to walk on: there is no philosophical wisdom of such great firmness that it can give us courage to walk on it as we should if it were on the ground.

I do not know whether I would not like much better to have produced one perfectly formed child by intercourse with the muses than by intercourse with my wife.

There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.