Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

The strength of every individual is the grace for great work.

…the worst thing said about him is that he was "uncurious.

The responsibility of literatuure is to make people awake, present, alive. If the writer wanders, then the reader, too, will wander.

Wanting and wishing are very different

The eclipses ofpoets are not foretold in the calender.

My childhood was quite extreme. Sometimes I was so weak I could not stand up. But now I am so strong. Life is unpredictable

The idea of connecting all people to knowledge and each other is enduring

... strong bonds are forged in high emotional temperatures.

If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know.

A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. ... A great society is simply a big and complicated urban society.