To be content with life or to live merrily, rather all that is required is that we bestow on all things only a fleeting, superficial glance; the more thoughtful we become the more earnest we grow.

It is a sure evidence of a good book if it pleases us more and more as we grow older.

The celebrated painter Gainsborough got as much pleasure from seeing violins as from hearing them.

It is astonishing how much the word infinitely is misused: everything is infinitely more beautiful, infinitely better, etc. The concept must have something pleasing about it, or its misuse could not have become so general.

I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested.

What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.

Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and times - and this is the worst of all - before we have new ones.