“The gods, my dear simple fellow, are a mere expression coined by vulgar superstition. We frown upon such coinage here.”

There’s no art where there’s no fee.

How can I study from below, that which is above?

Does it seem that everything is extravagance in the world, or rather madness, when you watch the way things go? A crowd of rogues enjoy blessings they have won by sheer injustice, while more honest folks are miserable and die of hunger.

It should not prejudice my voice that I’m not born a man, if I say something advantageous to the present situation. For I’m taxed too, and as a toll provide men for the nation.

Why, I’d like nothing better than to achieve some bold adventure, worthy of our trip.

You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.

First listen, my friend, and then you may shriek and bluster.

Do not bandy words with your father, nor treat him as a dotard, nor reproach the old man, who has cherished you, with his age.

A man should be able to stand up under any disaster for his country’s good.

A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.

Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.

Woman is adept at getting money for herself and will not easily let herself be deceived; she understands deceit too well herself.

To plunder, to lie, to show your arse, are three essentials for climbing high.

Children have a master to teach them, grown-ups have the poets.

Do not take a blind guide.

Open your mind before your mouth.

I can play a lot of things, but I haven’t mastered any one.

In times of violence, personal predilections for niceties of colour and form seem irrelevant.

All primitive expression (like the myths) reveals the constant awareness of powerful forces,

Expression of the heart is the beginning of all great creations.

Your results are an expression of your level of awareness.

It is in some ways the best expression of what humans are able to do. Nobody else can make that! And it’s delicious.

The present is big with the future, the future might be read in the past, the distant is expressed in the near.

Whatever you want to say, there is only one word to express it, only one verb to give it movement, only one adjective to qualify it.