Sickness is mankind's greatest defect.

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.

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.

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.

If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.