“There’s a bit of testicle at the bottom of our most sublime feelings and our purest tenderness.”

Distance is a great promoter of admiration.

When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.

The God of the Christians is a father who makes much of his apples, and very little of his children.

Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?

We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.

Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous, the savage.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.

A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it. Skepticism is the first step toward truth.

My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.

It has been said that love robs those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none.

Two qualities essential for the artist: moralityand perspective.

One composition is meagre, though it has many figures; another is rich, though it has few.

Jacques said that his master said that everything good or evil we encounter here below was written on high.

The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.

Man’s pleasure is a short time growing And it falls to the ground As quickly.

I think because my brother was an actor and I just saw how he struggled through, I guess I’m sensitive to it.

These be Three silent things: The Falling snow. . . the hour Before the dawn. . . the mouth of one Just dead.

Humans’ convenience, of course! Individuals of the species are snatched from their homes/family/habitat/held in captivity/forced to mate at great physical/ spiritual pain.

Auditioning is extremely bizarre.

There are many wild beasts on land and in the sea, but the beastliest of all is woman.

All animals go through interminable hard labor to produce what humans shamelessly rob from them at great physical/mental pain to them and to their young.

I really like being thrown into the works. Many actors, I have found, have this as a common trait.