Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

The life of every individual is really always a tragedy, but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy.

He who does not enjoy solitude will not love freedom.

The heavy armor becomes the light dress of childhood; the pain is brief, the joy unending.

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.

A man who has no mental needs, because his intellect is of the narrow and normal amount, is, in the strict sense of the word, what is called a philistine.

Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.