“It is impossible to have bad taste, but many people have none at all.”

“If we thought more for ourselves we would have very many more bad books and very many more good ones.”

“There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.”

“Some people come by the name of genius in the same way that certain insects come by the name of centipede -- not because they have a hundred feet, but because most people can't count above 14.”

“Nothing is more conductive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.”

“It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.”

“In his Comedy, Dante Alighieri names Virgil, with many tokens of respect, as his teacher, and yet as Herr Meinhard remarks, makes such ill use of him: clear proof that even in the days of Dante one praised the ancients without knowing why. This respect for poets one does not understand and yet wishes to equal is the source of the bad writing in our literature.”