Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

A man must keep an eye on his servants, if he would not have them rule him.

What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour?

He is a dull observer whose experience has not taught him the reality and force of magic, as well as of chemistry.

Nature turns all malfaisance to good.

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.

Bonaparte knew but one merit, and rewarded in one and the same way the good soldier, the good astronomer, the good poet, the good player.