Brevity: To say at once whatever is to be said.

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.

A bad dream can ruin your night, but a dream not chased can ruin your life.

He who curbs his desires will always be rich enough.

The Bible isn't a choose your own adventure book where everyone can just make up their own meaning.

I have wined and dined with kings and queens and I’ve slept in alleys and dined on pork and beans.

The fruits of philosophy are the important thing, not the philosophy itself. When we ask the time, we don't want to know how watches are made.

The true exceptional performer is on super pilot. Every single sense, every fiber of his body is brought together in what he is doing.

On the Earth, you admire the Moon; on the Moon, you admire the Earth!

Anyone who thinks humans are not capable of so fouling their own nest that the land and the waters can no longer be productive just hasn't been paying attention.

Elected on anti-corruption platform in 1978.

His neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage. He is indeed a horse.