A man of talent will strive for money and reputation; but the spring that moves genius to the production of its works is not as easy to name

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.

True faith is never found alone; it is accompanied by expectation.

A state of the soul is either (1) an emotion, (2) a capacity, or (3) a disposition; virtue therefore must be one of these three things.

I hate all that woozy political and psychotherapeutic crap applied to books and art.

We've come a long way. Power dressing now is designed to let the woman inside us come through.

What the masses want are monuments.

In his world, people never questioned him. And it was a good place to be, his world. Apparently she hadn't gotten the memo.

Happiness is the most important thing.

It shames the average man to be valued below his own estimate of his worth.

The greatest heresy in the American Evangelical and Protestant church is that if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in!

Theory must mediate between all previous truths and certain new experiences