Instead of discussing with myself every morning whether I feel inspired or not, I step into my office every day at nine sharp, open the window and politely ask the muse to enter and kiss me. Sometimes she comes in, more often she does not. But she can never claim that she hasn’t found me waiting in the right place.

Even when we strive for perfection, life is nothing more than an attempt to achieve it through a series of greater or smaller imperfections.

Politics is the only field in which the character of a person does not stand in the way of his career.

The striving of humanity for knowledge and truth [can] not be suppressed. The growth of the spirit [is]an essential part of Creation; it was planned like the growth of the body, of the plants and animals and people - every living thing that God had created.

The Encyclopedia--the advance artillery of reason, the armada of philosophy, the siege engine of the enlightenment...

I no longer believe in love," she said bitterly. "When people claim to have lost their heart, it's usually only their wits that have vanished.

Books are never harmless...they either strengthen us or they weaken us in our faith. Some of them do this even as they entertain us, others as they teach us. In an invisible way their teaching penetrates into our hearts and souls, to continue its work inside, and we inhale the spirit of these books as healing or poisonous vapors. They can bring the greatest benefits and the greatest ruin, for from their ideas that they spread come the deeds of the future.

I would advise a stupid woman always to follow her hsuband - however, a smart woman should rely on her own instincts.

Politics is a matter of leading other people. Admittedly not where they want to go, but where they ought to go.

Whoever possessed knowledge not only had power over the changeable passions of people, but also power over their thinking, over their minds, hearts and souls.