We may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who think through others. The latter are the rule and the former the exception. The first are original thinkers in a double sense, and egotists in the noblest meaning of the word.

A major difficulty in translation is that a word in one language seldom has a precise equivalent in another one.

There is not a grain of dust, not an atom that can become nothing, yet man believes that death is the annhilation of his being.

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

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.

In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one's rights and double one's duties.

If people insist that honor is dearer than life itself, what they really mean is that existence and well-being are as nothing compared with other people's opinions. Of course, this may be only an exaggerated way of stating the prosaic truth that reputation, that is, the opinion others have of us, is indispensable if we are to make any progress in the world.