A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.

Any of us can achieve virtue, if by virtue we merely mean the avoidance of the vices that do not attract us.

Every man has his moral backside too, which he doesn't expose unnecessarily but keeps covered as long as possible by the trousers of decorum.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together.

God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.

He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage -- he won't encounter many rivals.

Most subjects at universities are taught for no other purpose than that they may be retaught when the students become teachers.

Nothing contributes more to peace of soul than having no opinion at all.

Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.

Perhaps in time the so-called dark ages will be thought of as including our own.

Sometimes men come by the name of genius in the same way that certain insects come by the name of centipede -- not because they have a hundred feet, but because most people can't count above fourteen.

With most people unbelief in one thing is founded upon blind belief in another.