To see every day how people get the name 'genius' just as the wood-lice in the cellar the name 'millipede'-not because they have that many feet, but because most people don't want to count to 14-this has had the result that I don't believe anyone any more without checking.

Whenever he composes a critical review, I have been told, he gets an enormous erection.

A schoolteacher or professor cannot educate individuals, he educates only species.

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.

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

The worst thing you can possibly do is worrying and thinking about what you could have done.

When an acquaintance goes by I often step back from my window, not so much to spare him the effort of acknowledging me as to spare myself the embarrassment of seeing that he has not done so.