A book is a mirror: when a monkey in, no apostle can look out.

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change. What I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.

Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me me.

Good taste is either that which agrees with my taste or that which subjects itself to the rule of reason. From this we can see how useful it is to employ reason in seeking out the laws of taste.

Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.

I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.

To see every day how people get the name 'genius' just as the wood-lice in the cellar the name 'millipede'-not because they have that many feet, but because most people don't want to count to 14-this has had the result that I don't believe anyone any more without checking.

It often takes more courage to change one's opinion than to stick to it.

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.