Compassion is the basis of morality.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.
Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
The fruits of Christianity were religious wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, extermination of the natives of America, and the introduction of African slaves in their place.
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Music is the melody whose text is the world.
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
Women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important.
It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.
National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.
We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.
