The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow - by the tilt of the social landscape.

To learn you need a certain degree of confidence, not too much and not too little. If you have too little confidence, you will think you can't learn. If you have too much, you will think you don't have to learn.

It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.

It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.

The most troublesome problem which confronts social engineering is how to provide for the untalented and, what is equally important, how to provide against them.

To believe that if we could have but this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness.