It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because one's own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care.

But human experience is usually paradoxical, that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk or even current philosophy.

The most solid comfort one can fall back upon is the thought that the business of one's life is to help in some small way to reduce the sum of ignorance, degradation and misery on the face of this beautiful earth.

All honour and reverence to the divine beauty of form! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women and children -- in our gardens and in our houses. But let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret of proportion but in the secret of deep human sympathy.

Affection is the broadest basis of a good life.

Wine and the sun will make vinegar without any shouting to help them.

The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.