We have no words for speaking of wisdom to the stupid. He who understands the wise is wise already.

Everyone is perfectly willing to learn from unpleasant experience - if only the damage of the first lesson could be repaired.

He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.

There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.

The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and undoes the most carefully planned undertaking. The world's greatest events are not produced, they happen.

Libraries can in general be too narrow or too wide for the soul.

Every condition of the soul has its own sign and expression...So you will see how hard it is to seem original without being so.