The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.

A man has virtues enough if he deserves pardon for his faults on account of them.

He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

We have to believe that everything has a cause, as the spider spins its web in order to catch flies. But it does this before it knows there are such things as flies.

The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter.

There is no more important rule of conduct in the world than this: attach yourself as much as you can to people who are abler than you and yet not so very different that you cannot understand them.