“The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.”

“The more one pleases everybody, the less one pleases profoundly.”

“Friendship has its illusions no less than love.”

“The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.”

“Only great minds can afford a simple style.”

“All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.”

“The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears.”

“Power, after love, is the first source of happiness.”

“To describe happiness is to diminish it.”

“The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense will be its love of music.”

“True love makes the thought of death frequent, easy, without terrors; it merely becomes the standard of comparison, the price one would pay for many things.”