It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

She wore the moonlight like lingerie.

I doubt if hard work, steadily and regularly carried on, ever yet hurt anybody.

We behold the face of nature bright with gladness.

The painter’s instrument is his armchair.

The power of an aroused public is unbeatable.

The cost of hiring someone bad is so much greater than missing out on someone good.

When I started doing chemistry, I did it the way I fished - for the excitement, the discovery, the adventure, for going after the most elusive catch imaginable in uncharted seas.

Science has been the absolute bedrock of technological and economic progress in the United States.

Truth-telling by a leader can legitimate truth-telling at every level.

I so wanted to perform, and I grasped every opportunity.