This is the case with many learned persons; they have read themselves stupid.

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.

Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

On the path of actions, great heart is the chief recommendation; on that works, a great head.

Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.

Our moral virtues benefit mainly other people; intellectual virtues, on the other hand, benefit primarily ourselves; therefore the former make us universally popular, the latter unpopular.