Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else's meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . .

On the path of actions, great heart is the chief recommendation; on that works, a great head.

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

It is only the hope of what is claimed that begets and nurishes the wish.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.