Music is to the mind as air is to the body.

The laws of democracy remain a dead letter, its freedom is anarchy, its equality the equality of unequals

I will prove by my life that my critics are liars.

Poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say.

The wisdom of men is worth little or nothing.

The cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved; so that he passes a wrong judgment on what is just, good and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honor what belongs to himself in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself, or by another.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.