I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophists, economists and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is gone forever.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

Finance, like time, devours its own children.

Forbid a man to think for himself or to act for himself and you may add the joy of piracy and the zest of smuggling to his life.

Our expenses are all for conformity.

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

For nothing can seem foul to those that win.

He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong.

Since an intelligence common to us all makes things known to us and formulates them in our minds, honorable actions are ascribed by us to virtue, and dishonorable actions to vice; and only a madman would conclude that these judgments are matters of opinion, and not fixed by nature.