The greatest intellectual capacities are only found in connection with a vehement and passionate will.

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.

What, " asked Mr Croup, "do you want?""What, " asked the Marquis de Carabas, a little more rhetorically, "does anyone want?""Dead things, " suggested Mr Vandemar. "Extra teeth.

Everybody wanted me to be rich and famous on my art. And I said no to all the commercials and all the seedy offers.

In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.

We are prudent people. We are afraid to let go of our petty reality in order to grasp at a great shadow.

There's a lust in man, no charm can tame, of loudly publishing our neighbor's shame.

I'm probably not going to get married unless I live with somebody for 10 or 20 years. But these people, Romeo and Juliet, took a chance and they did it. We don't have the balls that Romeo did.

Life is too short to live the same day twice. So each new day make sure you live your life.

I'm loyal to my thoughts, to my friends. This is what I really like the best. Loyalty. Sounds goody-goody. Maybe that's not the one you wanted.

The moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding places.

That which one fears, one typically won't embrace with open arms.