The artist's conception of his art or the scientist's of his science is usually as great as his conception of his own worth is small.

Death is not evil, for it frees man from all ills and takes away his desires along with desire's rewards.

A dictionary can embrace only a small part of the vast tapestry of a language.

Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind.

Man is doomed either squander his youth, which is the only time he has to store provisions for the coming years and provide for his own well-being, or to spend his youth procuring pleasures in advance for that time of life when he will be too old to enjoy them.

He who travels much has this advantage over others – that the things he remembers soon become remote, so that in a short time they acquire the vague and poetical quality which is only given to other things by time. He who has not traveled at all has this disadvantage – that all his memories are of things present somewhere, since the places with which all his memories are concerned are present.

If content with himself and mankind, a man is never harsh or curt.