It would appear, from the best examples, that the proper way of beginning a preface to one's work is with a humble apology for having written at all.

Too much principle is often more harmful than too little.

It is only by knowing how little life has in store for us that we are able to look on the bright side and avoid disappointment.

One cannot lay a foundation by scattering stones, nor is a reputation for good work to be got by strewing volumes about the world.

In the past few years, I have made a thrilling discovery ... that until one is over sixty, one can never really learn the secret of living. One can then begin to live, not simply with the intense part of oneself, but with one's entire being.

... the life of the mind is reality, and love without romantic illumination is a spiritless matter.

it is wiser to be conventionally immoral than unconventionally moral. It isn't the immorality they object to, but the originality.