Quotes from Hippolyte Taine

I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.

Man may be considered as a superior species of animal that produces philosophies and poems in about the same way a silkworm produces their cocoons and bees their hives.

The search for causes must come after the collection of facts.

History is nothing but a problem of mechanics applied to psychology.

In the stormy current of life characters are weights or floats which at one time make us glide along the bottom, and at another maintain us on the surface.

Four varieties in society: lovers, the ambitious, observers, and fools. The fools are the happiest.

There are four varieties in society the lovers the ambitious observers and fools. The fools are the happiest.

We study ourselves three weeks, we love each other three months, we squabble three years, we tolerate each other thirty years, and then the children start all over again.

I've met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.

There are four types of men in the world: lovers, opportunists, lookers-on, and imbeciles. The happiest are the imbeciles.

To have a true idea of man or of life, one must have stood himself on the brink of suicide, or on the door-sill of insanity, at least once.

I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.

History is nothing but a problem of mechanics applied to psychology.