If you want someone to develop a specific trait, treat them as though they already had it.

The world runs on from one folly to another; and the man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool.

People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.

Then to the depths! - I could as well say height: It's all the same.

Whoever, in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth, invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a man's life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.

There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.

We are surrounded by abysses, but the greatest of all depths is in our own heart, and an irresistible leaning leads us there. Draw thyself from thyself!