Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

To read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings is paying off one's debts.

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

He who understands the wise is wise already.

As life begins with a tiny little thing, success begins with tiny little steps forward.

Past conversations were slowly realigning in Blue's head, taking on new shades of meaning as they did.

Determination is the fuel that propels one to higher virtues.

I said no to the Born Survivor producer three times because I've never aspired to be a TV man.

In my 20s, I worked very, very hard. I have a much more balanced life now.

In literature it is only the wild that attracts us.

The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to... bare the secrets of government and inform the people.

A sinning man stops praying; a praying man stops sinning.

The aim of university education should be to turn out true servants of the people who will live and die for the country's freedom.

Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind; it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. I maintain that one should always talk of philosophy with a smile.