Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind.

Being right is less important to us than the freedom to be wrong.

We bestow on others praise in which we do not believe, on condition that in return they bestow upon us praise in which we do.

Renown? I've already got more of it than those I respect, and will never have as much as those for whom I feel contempt.

We spend our time envying people whom we wouldn't wish to be.

We find it easy to believe that praise is sincere: why should anyone lie in telling us the truth?

To say of men that they are bad is to say they are worse than we think we are, or worse than the ideal man whose image we have built up on the basis of a certain few.