The world laughs at things it would really prefer to admire, and like Aesop's fox it criticizes things it covets.

Man is almost always as wicked as his needs require.

Irresolute men are sometimes very persistent in their undertakings, because if they give up their designs they would have to make a second resolution.

The artisan or scientist or the follower of whatever discipline who has the habit of comparing himself not with other followers but with the discipline itself will have a lower opinion of himself, the more excellent he is.

I may be wrong, but it seems rare in our age to find a widely praised person whose own mouth is not the source of that praise.

In all climates, under all skies, man's happiness is always somewhere else.

I find it awfully difficult to determine if the habit of talking about oneself at length runs contrary to the basic rules of propriety, or if instead the man exempt from this vice is rare.