The surest sign of the estrangement of the opinions of two persons is when they both say something ironical to each other and neither of them feels the irony.

These days, if a man still attacks and crushes opinions with suspicions and outbursts of rage, in the manner of men during the Reformation, he clearly betrays that he would have burnt his opponents, had he lived in other times, and that he would have taken recourse to all the means of the Inquisition, had he lived as an opponent of the Reformation.

If it is true to say of the lazy that they kill time, then it is greatly to be feared that an era which sees its salvation in public opinion, this is to say private laziness, is a time that really will be killed.

One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to agree with many people.

One man adheres to an opinion because he prides himself on having come upon it by himself; another because he has learned it with effort, and is proud of having grasped it: thus both out of vanity.

The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.