To expect a man to retain everything that he has ever read is like expecting him to carry about in his body everything that he has ever eaten.

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

The present is the only reality and the only certainty.

Genius is to other gifts what the carbuncle is to the precious stones. It sends forth its own light, whereas other stones only reflect borrowed light.

What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.

Whether we are in a pleasant or a painful state depends, finally, upon the kind of matter that pervades and engrosses our consciousness and what we compare it to - better and we envious and sad, worse and we feel grateful and happy.

Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.