A vacuum of ideas affects people differently than a vacuum of air, otherwise readers of books would be constantly collapsing.

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.

Don't take crucial decisions when you are depressed or filled with anger, because then the decision is not made by you.

I could be the ceaseless mist that fogs your colourless eyes when you're lost in your universes.

...that icy glass reduces your beauty - dims your fire - let me be your mirror...

Music that is created with the primary aim of impressing other musicians fails to connect with the vast majority of listeners.

We all know that education unlocks the door of opportunity for the young.

I believe I am a better director than actor. I enjoy acting if the part is right. Directing comes very naturally to me. I enjoy it. I am very confident in my work.

I agonize over things like this - the order of things, section titles, all this architectural sort of stuff. Takes me years to figure out.

Fame, that public destruction of one in process of becoming, into whose building-ground the mob breaks, displacing his stones.