Men seldom act from a correct sense of what may be harmful or useful to them.

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.

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.

The greater part of the people we assign to educate our sons we know for certain are not educated. Yet we do not doubt that they can give what they have not received, a thing which cannot be otherwise acquired.

The thought that really crushes us is the thought of the futility of life of which death is the visible manifestation.

Nothing in the world is so rare as a person one can always put up with.

It's not our disadvantages or shortcomings that are ridiculous, but rather the studious way we try to hide them, and our desire to act as if they did not exist.