I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too.

You believe I run after the strange because I do not know the beautiful; no, it is because you do not know the beautiful that I seek the strange.

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

We accumulate our opinions at an age when our understanding is at its weakest.

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.

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.