We are not naïve enough to ask for pure men; we ask merely for men whose impurity does not conflict with the obligations of their job.

Somebody told me I should put a pebble in my mouth to cure my stuttering. Well, I tried it, and during a scene I swallowed the pebble. That was the end of that.

A body of work such as Pasteur's is inconceivable in our time: no man would be given a chance to create a whole science. Nowadays a path is scarcely opened up when the crowd begins to pour in.

We spend our time envying people whom we wouldn't wish to be.

My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.

Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.

Kill one man, and you are murderer.

Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men.

To be adult is to be alone.

A man is not old as long as he is seeking something.

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.

After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

To seek is to show valor. To endure is to show strength. To believe all will arise in a time of perfection. There shows trust and faith in you.

Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty.

We don’t always choose our situation. But, we can always choose who we want to be in that situation.

Sometimes the best lighting of all is a power failure.

I think you can get to a point where nihilism, if that's the right word, is overwhelming, and the basic laws that society has set up - either religious or social laws - become meaningless.

Whenever we have seen a crevice in the crust of convention, we have called attention to it, because we have hoped for a force underneath, which will someday come to light.

The industrial world destroys nature not because it doesn’t love it but because it is not afraid of it.

I think if you're doing alcohol and drugs, the chances of you surviving this kind of a pace are next to nothing. I live an extremely healthy life.

The most time I spent home in 2009 was about a month.