It is possible that these millions of suns, along with thousands of millions more we cannot see, make up altogether but a globule of blood or lymph in the veins of an animal, of a minute insect, hatched in a world of whose vastness we can frame no conception, but which nevertheless would itself, in proportion to some other world, be no more than a speck of dust.
We have never heard the devil's side of the story, God wrote all the book.
Epicure a dit: ou Dieu veut empΓͺcher le mal et ne le peut, ou il le peut et ne le veut, ou il ne le peut ni ne le veut, ou il le veut et le peut. S'il le veut et ne le peut, il est impuissant; s'il le peut et ne le veut, il est pervers; s'il ne le peut ni ne le veut, il est impuissant et pervers; s'il le veut et le peut, que ne le fait-il, mon pΓ¨re ?
It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.
The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.
To accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.
Science neither cares to please nor to displease. She is inhuman. It is not science but poetry that charms and consoles. And that is why poetry is more necessary than science.
They did not understand that war, which trained courage and founded the cities of barbarous and ignorant men, brings to victor himself but ruin and misery, and is nothing but a horrible and stupid crime when nations are united together by common bonds of art, science, and trade.
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.
Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.
The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which will last forever.
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.
The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.
One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.
It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit.
