Jaime Luciano Balmes

A lazy man is a clock without a spring.

Reason is a monarch condemned to continually struggle with the rebellious passions.

He who does not tolerate intolerance is not tolerant.

The men capable of raising and carrying forward a flag are very few.

Great men are simple, while mediocre ones are pompous.

Even good feelings, if excessively exalted, are capable of leading us to deplorable errors.

Terrible is the error when it usurps the name of science.

One should read a lot, but not many books; this is an excellent rule.

Only intelligence examines itself.

When abuses are great and entrenched, the push to uproot them must be strong.

It is not very difficult to attack the opinions of others, but it is difficult to support one's own: because human reason is as weak for building as it is a formidable battering ram for destruction.

Man employs hypocrisy to deceive himself, perhaps more than to deceive others.