The methods of creation may change, but a soul embedded in a work of art can never die or grow old. If the language of a poem still allows us to read it, if the intention of a sculptor can still be discerned from collected fragments, then the soul of a creator has not died even for us, the living.
Man dies, but his soul, which is not subject to destruction, escapes and lives another life. But if the deceased person was an artist, if he hid his life in sounds, colors or words, his soul is always the same, alive for the earth and for mankind...
No amount of genius can compensate for lack of taste.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not error, but inertia.
We only need free criticism, and then we can be sure that everything will be put in order, no matter how many mistakes we make.
One misconception struggles with another, each destroys its opponent, and from this struggle truth is born. In this lies the history of the development of the human spirit, and from this point of view, the openers of new roads and the founders of new heresies are benefactors of the human race. Whether they were right or not is the most insignificant aspect of the matter. They act upon the spirit as a stimulus, direct its efforts to activity, prompt us to new researches; treat old things in new ways; they overcome everyone's inertia and, perhaps crudely but usefully, fight the love of routine.
In the past, the richer Gele countries were those whose nature was most abundant; now, the richest countries are those where man is most active.
The only remedy against superstition is knowledge; nothing else can remove this stain from the human mind.
A legislator must seek not truth but utility.
Knowledge is not an inert, passive visitor that comes to us whether we want it or not; it must be sought before it is ours, it is the result of enormous labor and therefore of great sacrifice.
True knowledge consists not in the knowledge of facts, which makes a man a mere pedant, but in the use of facts, which makes a man a philosopher.
He who flatters his superiors tramples on those who are below him.
We often meet people whose book science serves as an instrument of their ignorance, people who the more they read, the less they know.
The keenest observer and the deepest thinker are always the most lenient judges; only a solitary misanthrope, tormented by imaginary sufferings, tends to depreciate a person's good characteristics and exaggerate the bad ones.
No one can escape the impressions of the environment; and what is called a new philosophy or a new religion, is usually not so much the creation of new ideas as of a new direction.
The philosophy of each specialty is based on the connection of the latter with other specialties, and it must be sought in the points of contact between them.
The English travel not to see foreign lands, but to see the sun.
Apology of the devil: it must be remembered that in this case only one of the parties is listened to, because God wrote all the books of both Testaments.
The Bible probably tells the truth, but it cannot be said to be the whole truth and the only truth.
God was pleased with his work, that's how awful it is.
God and the devil achieved impressive results from specialization and division of labor.
God cannot change the past, but historians can. And perhaps it is precisely because they provide this service that God tolerates their existence.
God is not as bad as he is portrayed but not as good either.
In life there are two main rules, one general, one particular. The first one says: sooner or later everyone will get what they want, if they work hard. This is the general rule. The particular rule states that every person, to a greater or lesser extent, is an exception to the rule.
After all, pleasure is a far more reliable counselor than justice or a sense of duty.
At the foundation of art and literature, as at the foundation of war, is money.
The biggest liar is the unconscious liar.
Faith, like everything in nature, follows the path of least resistance.
With faith you will succeed a little, but without faith you will succeed nothing.
A couple in love is like a sunrise or a sunset: a daily phenomenon, but which is very rarely observed.