...it is not usual, I say, for such privileged and wealthy beings to waste their time in speculations on the state of society, in philosophical reveries, intended at best to console those whom fate has disinherited from the goods of this world.

Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have understanding. The first requires memory and the second philosophy.

To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others.

Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.

Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.

Perhaps what I am about to say will appear strange to you gentlemen, socialists, progressives, humanitarians as you are, but I never worry about my neighbor, I never try to protect society which does not protect me -- indeed, I might add, which generally takes no heed of me except to do me harm -- and, since I hold them low in my esteem and remain neutral towards them, I believe that society and my neighbor are in my debt.

Il y a les sachants et les savants: c'est la mémoire qui fait les uns, c'est la philosophie qui fait les autres. La philosophie ne s'apprend pas; la philosophie est la réunion des sciences acquises au génie qui les applique.