Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
That which we do not call education is more precious than that which we call so.
Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor.
Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.
The poorest experience is rich enough for all the purposes of expressing thought
Enthusiasm is the height of man; it is the passing from the human to the divine.
Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy?
Come out of the azure. Love the day. Do not leave the sky out of your landscape.
The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting.
Society has really no graver interest than the well-being of the literary class.
The soul answers never by words, but by the thing itself that is inquired after.
The test of civilization is the power of drawing the most benefit out of cities.
The amount of a man's wealth consists in the number of things he can do without.
The brevity of human life gives a melancholy to the profession of the architect.
Let not the author eat up the man, so that he shall be all balcony and no house.
Circles, like the soul, are neverending and turn round and round without a stop.
Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces, which expose the whole movement.
Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom.
An answer in words is delusive; it is really no answer to the questions you ask.
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
I think a book should be judged 10 years later, after reading and re-reading it.
I think of myself as a serious professor who, during the weekend, writes novels.
I have only the idea I have made of myself to sustain me on oceans of nothingness
It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative.
The overall quantity of nuclear weapons in the world continues to decline slowly.
We have in England a particular bashfulness in every thing that regards religion.
There is no talent so pernicious as eloquence to those who have it under command.
Some people are born to lift heavy weights, some are born to juggle golden balls.
The real luxury travel of the modern age is not through space; it's through time.
Of cheerfulness, or a good temper - the more it is spent, the more of it remains.
The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.
Law rules throughout existence, a Law which is not intelligent, but Intelligence.
I read your piece on Plato. Holmes, when you strike at a king, you must kill him.
When a happy person comes into the room, it is as if another candle has been lit.
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
Men wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their vices, but not from their vices.
This valley is the only place that comes up to the brag about it, and exceeds it.
When believers and unbelievers live in the same manner - I distrust the religion.
My life should be unique; it should be an alms, a battle, a conquest, a medicine.
Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.
Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.
Let him go where he will, he can only find so much beauty or worth as he carries.
The imaginative faculty of the soul must be fed with objects immense and eternal.
It is a capital blunder; as you discover, when another man recites his charities.
Wouldst thou shut up the avenues of ill, Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.
This book of Montaigne the world has endorsed by translating it into all tongues.
They have seen but half the universe who never have been shown the house of pain.
I grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature.
Five great enemies of peace inhabit us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride.
All the tools and engines on earth are only extensions of man's limbs and senses.
Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never.