When a man comes to me, I accept him at his best, not at his worst. Why make so much ado? When a man washes his hands before paying a visit, and you receive him in that clean state, you do not thereby stand surety for his always having been clean in the past.

The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.

Study as if you have not reached your goal - hold it as if you were afraid of losing what you have.

Some are born with knowledge, some derive it from study, and some acquire it only after a painful realization of their ignorance. But the knowledge being possessed, it comes to the same thing. Some study with a natural ease, some from a desire for advantages, and some by strenuous effort. But the achievement being made, it comes to the same thing.

To know is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Only after Winter comes do we know that the pine and the cypress are the last to fade.

The funniest people are the saddest once