A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.

A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself.

Dreams are faithful interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them.

I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.

I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.

Oh these foolish men! They could not create so much as a worm, but they create gods by the dozens.

Man will rise, if God by exception lends him a hand; he will rise by abandoning and renouncing his own means, and letting himselfbe raised and uplifted by purely celestial means.