A genius is a promontory jutting out into the infinite.

A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.

To rise from error to truth is rare and beautiful.

There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at a time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.

Joy’s smile is much closer to tears than laughter.

One can resist the invasion of armies; one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.

Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields which have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.

A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour.