The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else--we are the busiest people in the world.

A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he have roots and feels at home in the world.

It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned.

The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it.