If we thought more for ourselves we would have very many more bad books and very many more good ones.

People who have read a good deal rarely make great discoveries. I do not say this in excuse of laziness, but because invention presupposes an extensive independent contemplation of things.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year.

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

There can hardly be a stranger commodity in the world than books. Printed by people who don't understand them; sold by people who don't understand them; bound, criticized and read by people who don't understand them; and now even written by people who don't understand them.

The writer who cannot sometimes throw away a thought about which another man would have written dissertations, without worry whether or not the reader will find it, will never become a great writer.

The great rule: If the little bit you have is nothing special in itself, at least find a way of saying it that is a little bit special.