Being gifted needs courage.

My father, though, could run very much faster. It was impossible to compete with him on the grass. But it was astonishing how slow old people were. Some of them could not run up a hill and called it trying to climb stairs.

Any feeling that I was enriching my mind from those surrounding me was unfortunately rare with me.

It gradually dawned upon me that there was no one more difficult to please than my mother.

School is a foretaste of life.

I admired in others the strength that I lacked myself.

But I did not find any positive inspiration in my studies until I approached my nineteenth year.