Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

The truth can wait, for it lives a long life.

For an act to be moral the intention must be based on compassion, not duty. We do something because we want to do it, because we feel we have to do it, not because we ought to do it. And even if our efforts fail - or we never even get to implement them - we are still moral because our motivation was based on compassion.

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.

Whoever wants his judgment to be believed, should express it coolly and dispassionately; for all vehemence springs from the will. And so the judgment might be attributed to the will and not to knowledge, which by its nature is cold.

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.