There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.

Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others.

Resistance, whether to one's appetites or to the ways of the world, is a chief factor in the shaping of character.

In human affairs every solution serves only to sharpen the problem, to show us more clearly what we are up against. There are no final solutions.

The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.

There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.

To the old, the new is usually bad news.