“The history books which contain no lies are extremely tedious.”

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.

We chase dreams and embrace shadows.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

Science neither cares to please nor to displease. She is inhuman. It is not science but poetry that charms and consoles. And that is why poetry is more necessary than science.

When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

Of all sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

Dictionary: The universe in alphabetical order.

Man is a rational animal. He can think up a reason for anything he wants to believe.

The wonder is, not that the field of stars is so vast, but that man has measured it.

People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.

Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you’ll never know where you’ll get an idea from.

The reason I collect good ideas is because plots themselves are very difficult indeed to come by.

When I look at my room, I see a girl who loves books.

I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.

Read a lot. Reading really helps. Read anything you can get your hands on.

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.

Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once.