If the path has been laid down, why the successive appearance of different teachers? Why would anyone reinvent the wheel, if everything were as cosy and sequential as primitive longing so easily convinces us?

Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.

An egocentric pessimist is a person who thinks he hasn't changed, but that other people are behaving worse than before.

Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.

To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.

But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.

Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.