God, that dumping ground of our dreams.

Greatness, in order to gain recognition, must all too often consent to ape greatness.

I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.

I prefer the honest jargon of reality to the outright lies of books.

I should have no use for a paradise in which I should be deprived of the right to prefer hell.

I still understand a few words in life, but I no longer think they make a sentence.

I think I am one of those who can manage not to take on a completely different appearance under their own glance.

In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one's party three times a day.

It is sometimes important for science to know how to forget the things she is surest of.

It is sometimes well for a blatant error to draw attention to overmodest truths.

It takes a very deep-rooted opinion to survive unexpressed.

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.

Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth.

One must credit an hypothesis with all that has had to be discovered in order to demolish it.

One must either take an interest in the human situation or else parade before the void.

Renown? I've already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt.

Take heed of critics even when they are not fair; resist them even when they are.

The books one has written in the past have two surprises in store: one couldn't write them again, and wouldn't want to.

The divine is perhaps that quality in man which permits him to endure the lack of God.

The ideal, without doubt, varies, but its enemies, alas, are always the same.