The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.

More from "In Praise of Dissent", New York Times, 16 December 1956

• What is more important in a library than anything else — is the fact that it exists.
• Who has not heard them? They say: We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning!
• Accept loss forever
• A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Essays, "Character," 1844