In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

For one crime which is expiated in prison ten thousand are committed thoughtlessly by those who condemn.

The moment one is on the side of life “peace and security” drop out of consciousness. The only peace, the only security, is in fulfillment.

The new always carries with it the sense of violation, of sacrilege. What is dead is sacred; what is new, that is, different, is evil, dangerous, or subversive.

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.

The Frenchman is first and foremost a man. He is likeable often just because of his weaknesses, which are always thoroughly human, even if despicable.

It is the American vice, the democratic disease which expresses its tyranny by reducing everything unique to the level of the herd.

The Englishman, be it noted, seldom resorts to violence; when he is sufficiently goaded he simply opens up, like the oyster, and devours his adversary.

The blind lead the blind. It’s the democratic way.

Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.