“My love for imaginary objects and my facility in lending myself to them ended by disillusioning me with everything around me, and determined that love of solitude which I have retained ever since that time.”

In any real democracy, magistracy isn’t a benefit—it’s a burdensome responsibility that can’t fairly be imposed on one individual rather than another.

If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.

He who blushes is already guilty.

What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?

Every artists wants to be applauded

I am not made like any of those I have seen. I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different.

All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows.

If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.

Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.

He who pretends to look on death without fear lies. All men are afraid of dying, this is the great law of sentient beings, without which the entire human species would soon be destroyed.

From this it follows that, the larger the State, the less the liberty.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

To live is not merely to breathe; it is to act; it is to make use of our organs, senses, faculties – of all those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of existence.

The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.

It is pity in which the state of nature takes the place of laws, morals and virtues, with the added advantage that no one there is tempted to disobey its gentle voice.

There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.

Reality is for people that lack imagination.

Russia is a part of European culture. Therefore, it is with difficulty that I imagine NATO as an enemy.

There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do.

Even when we are quite alone, how often do we think with pleasure or pain of what others think of us – of their imagined approbation or disapprobation.

Einstein said ‘your imagination is more important than intelligence,’ and I have a very, very big imagination.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

If you do not see great riches in your imagination, you will never see them in your bank balance.

For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.