History is rich with adventurous men, long on charisma, with a highly developed instinct for their own interests, who have pursued personal power - bypassing parliaments and constitutions, distributing favours to their minions, and conflating their own desires with the interests of the community.

All the stories I would like to write persecute me. When I am in my chamber, it seems as if they are all around me, like little devils, and while one tugs at my ear, another tweaks my nose, and each says to me, 'Sir, write me, I am beautiful.

In short, Roberto privately concluded, if you would avoid wars, never make treaties of peace.

This, in fact, is the power of the imagination, which, combining the memory of gold with that of the mountain, can compose the idea of a golden mountain.

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.

Libraries can take the place of God.

Even today, I frequently meet scientists who, outside their own narrow discipline, are superstitious.