It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Faith consists in believing not what seems true, but what seems false to our understanding.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

The passions are the winds which fill the sails of the vessel; they sink it at times, but without them it would be impossible to make way.

Why are the Jews hated? It is the inevitable result of their laws; they either have to conquer everybody or be hated by the whole human race.

Men appear to prefer ruining one another's fortunes, and cutting each other's throats about a few paltry villages, to extending the grand means of human happiness.