A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection.

The apparent foolishness of others is but too frequently our own ignorance.

If you would understand your own age, read the works of fiction produced in it. People in disguise speak freely.

Wisdom is seldom gained without suffering.

We are not so easily guided by our most prominent weaknesses as by those of which we are least aware.

Always win fools first. They talk much, and what they have once uttered they will stick to; whereas there is always time, up to the last moment, to bring before a wise man arguments that may entirely change his opinion.

Those who never philosophized until they met with disappointments, have mostly become disappointed philosophers