Power without abuse loses its charm.

We are wont to condemn self-love; but what we really mean to condemn is contrary to self-love. It is that mixture of selfishness and self-hate that permanently pursues us, that prevents us from loving others, and that prohibits us from losing ourselves.

To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant and totally unexpected thoughts.

Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature.

The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect.

In poetry everything which must be said is almost impossible to say well.

Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business.