Uncultivated minds are not full of wild flowers, like uncultivated fields. Villainous weeds grow in them and they are the haunt of toads.

All my life, as down an abyss without a bottom. I have been pouring van loads of information into that vacancy of oblivion I call my mind.

The emergence of a new term to describe a certain phenomenon, of a new adjective to designate a certain quality, is always of interest, both linguistically and from the point of view of the history of human thought.

Hearts that are delicate and kind and tongues that are neither - these make the finest company in the world.

So, I never lose a sense of the whimsical and perilous charm of daily life, with its meetings and words and accidents.

There are people whose society I find delicious; but when I sit alone and think of them I shudder.

Self-respecting people do not care to peep at their reflections in unexpected mirrors, or to see themselves as others see them.