I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.

Man would not be the finest creature in the world if he were not too fine for it.

One must be something, in order to do something.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

We often feel that we lack something, and seem to see that very quality in someone else, promptly attributing all our own qualities to him too, and a kind of ideal contentment as well. And so the happy mortal is a model of complete perfection--which we have ourselves created.

Method will teach you to win time.

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent.