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.

Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.

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

Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.