He who writes carelessly confesses thereby at the very outset that he does not attach much importance to his own thoughts.

Every original idea is first ridiculed, then vigorously attacked, and finally taken for granted.

A book can never be anything more than the impression of its author’s thoughts. The value of these thoughts lies either in the matter about which he has thought, or in the form in which he develops his matter — that is to say, what he has thought about it.

Nothing in life gives a man so much courage as the attainment or renewal of the conviction that other people regard him with favor; because it means that everyone joins to give him help and protection, which is an infinitely stronger bulwark against the ills of life than anything he can do himself.

Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.

We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artificies as we do our own selves.