The good four. Honest with ourselves and with whatever is friend to us; courageous toward the enemy; generous toward the vanquished; polite-always that is how the four cardinal virtues want us.

Insects sting, not from malice, but because they want to live. It is the same with critics; they desire our blood not our pain.

What do I care about the purring of one who cannot love, like the cat?

Many people, especially women, never experience boredom because they have never learned to work properly.

Every word is a preconceived judgment.

Science offends the modesty of all real women. It makes them feel as though it were an attempt to peek under their skin--or, worseyet, under their dress and ornamentation!

This is the crux of the moral pessimists: if they really wanted to promote their neighbor's redemption, then they would have to resolve themselves to spoiling existence for him, and thus to being his misfortune; out of pity, they would have to--become evil!