Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.

Cruel men are the greatest lovers of Mercy, avaricious men of generosity, and proud men of humility; that is to say, in other, not in themselves.

Subtract from the great man all that he owes to opportunity, all that he owes to chance, and all that he gained by the wisdom of his friends and the folly of his enemies, and the giant will often be seen to be a pygmy.

To despise our own species is the price we must often pay for knowledge of it.

He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

Men are more readily contented with no intellectual light than with a little; and wherever they have been taught to acquire some knowledge in order to please others, they have most generally gone on to acquire more, to please themselves.