Beauty is that which is simultaneously attractive and sublime.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

Versatility of education can be found in our best poetry, but the depth of mankind should be found in the philosopher.

Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy.

Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry.

Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.

Novels are the Socratic dialogues of our time. Practical wisdom fled from school wisdom into this liberal form.

Wit as an instrument of revenge is as infamous as art is as a means of sensual titillation.

The main thing is to know something and to say it.

When reason and unreason come into contact, an electrical shock occurs. This is called polemics.

A priest is he who lives solely in the realm of the invisible, for whom all that is visible has only the truth of an allegory.

The impoverished always try to keep moving, as if relocating might help.

I'm English. Our dentistry is not world famous.

That's the way love sounds, my mother told me. You think it should feel like honey, but instead it cuts like a knife.

Dialogue in fiction is always written to be read in silence. The page is the limit. Dialogue on stage and on the screen is meant to be spoken. The voice is the limit.

I'm always reading. And I keep a whole list of stories, often unusual stories. There are a hundred some-odd ideas on that list.

I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth

Justice is the very last thing of all wherewith the universe concerns itself. It is equilibrium that absorbs its attention.

By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd; The sports of children satisfy the child.

For those who want some proof that physicists are human, the proof is in the idiocy of all the different units which they use for measuring energy.

Apology is mankind's nearest course to perfection.