It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.

You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing and absolutely nothing other than that one thing.

What a man is: that is to say, personality, in the widest sense of the word; under which are included health, strength, beauty, temperament, moral character, intelligence, and education.

The principle of contradiction establishes merely the agreement of concepts, but does not itself produce concepts.

Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task.

No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.

One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.