We remember childhood as the fabulous years of our lives, and nations remember their childhood as fabulous years.

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.

That is why all great men are modest: they consistently measure themselves not in comparison to other people but to the idea of perfection ever present in their minds, an ideal infinitely clearer and greater than any common people have, and they also realize how far they are from fulfilling their ideal.

If the best company is that which we leave feeling most satisfied with ourselves, it follows that it is the company we leave most bored.

We remember childhood as the fabulous years of our lives, and nations remember their childhood as fabulous years.

Man is almost always as wicked as his needs require.

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.