A thirsty ambition for truth and virtue, and a frenzy to conquer all lies and vices which are not recognized as such nor desire to be; herein consists the heroic spirit of the philosopher.

The thirst for vengeance was the beautiful nature which Homer imitated

Our reason arises, at the very least, from this twofold lesson of sensuous revelations and human testimonies.

A writer who is in a hurry to be understood today or tomorrow runs the danger of being misunderstood the day after tomorrow.

The farther reason looks the greater is the haze in which it loses itself.

The weakness of ourselves and of our reason makes us see flaws in beauties by making us consider everything piece by piece.

Not only the entire ability to think rests on language... but language is also the crux of the misunderstanding of reason with itself.

The product of paper and printed ink, that we commonly call the book, is one of the great visible mediators between spirit and time, and, reflecting zeitgeist, lasts as long as ore and stone.

What good to me is the festive garment of freedom when I am in a slave's smock at home?

Everything is vain and tortures the spirit instead of calming and satisfying it.

What Tarquin the Proud said in his garden with the poppy blooms was understood by the son but not by the messenger.

A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.

None but yourself who are your greatest foe.

As with anything creative, change is inevitable.

I support stem cell research, including embryonic stem cell research.

At 60 the sexual preoccupation, when it hits you, seems sometimes sharper, as if it were an elderly malady, like gout.

Preventing terrorist attacks is of the highest important, but trashing the Constitution is not the right way to do it.

All progress is due to the unreasonable person.

You could not be in the civil rights movement without having an appreciation for everybody's rights. That these rights are not divisible - not something men have and women don't and so on.

It is always wonderful to be a curious comet wandering in the galaxy of a good book.

Success will ruin your life.