An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience.

The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water, and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.

The one self- knowledge worth having is to know one's own mind.

But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.

It is good to know what a man is, and also what the world takes him for. But you do not understand him until you have learnt how he understands himself.

One said of suicide, As long as one has brains one should not blow them out. And another answered, But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.

The propriety of some persons seems to consist in having improper thoughts about their neighbors.