All that is alive tends toward color, individuality, specificity, effectiveness and opacity. All that is done with life inclines toward knowledge, abstraction, generality transfiguration and transparency.

Riches amassed in haste will diminish; but those collected by hand and little by little will multiply.

True happiness springs from moderation.

Certain faults are necessary for the existence of the individual. We would resent it if old friends were to get rid of certain peculiarities.

Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.

A person hears only what they understand.

It is a maxim of wise government to treat people not as they should be but as they actually are.