“True love always makes a man better, no matter what woman inspires it.”

“Infatuated, half through conceit, half through love of my art, I achieve the impossible working as no one else ever works.”

“How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it”

“In all times, and all countries especially in those countries which are divided within by religious faith, there are always fanatics who will be well contented to be regarded as martyrs.”

“I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.”

“I began a poem in lines of one syllable. It's rather difficult, but the merit of all things lies in their difficulty. The subject matter is gallant. I'll read you the first canto; it's four...”

“The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.”

“Nothing makes time pass or shortens the way like a thought that absorbs in itself all the faculties of the one who is thinking. External existence is then like a sleep of which this thought...”