To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.

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.

You cannot explore the universe if you think that you are the center of it.

A weak mind complains about everything and loves nothing. A strong mind complains about nothing and loves everything.

I looked up and she said, "You have to believe I did everything a reasonable person would do. Maybe I didn't reach my hands into toilet water, but I did everything else I could.

Endeavor for greatness, venture for the sake of the heart.

Being a mother is hard and it wasn't a subject I ever studied.

The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification ofthe spirit.

When you are shooting with a robot you can't improvise. You can't really... the script is kind of the script.

The way your parents try to talk to you about politics and pull you to their side, that's an exciting moment in your family.

Your conscious life is an elaborate after-the-fact rationalization of things you really do for other reasons.