Great men too make mistakes, and many among them do it so often that one is almost tempted to call them little men.

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

There is something in our minds like sunshine and the weather, which is not under our control. When I write, the best things come to me from I know not where.

The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the deluded deluders.

Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.

He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.

The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.