Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears...as easily as we open and shut our eyes.

A sure sign of a good book is that you like it more the older you get.

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

I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.

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.