The dispersing and scattering our names into many mouths, we call making them more great.

Just as in habiliments it is a sign of weakness to wish to make oneself noticeable by some peculiar and unaccustomed fashion, so, in language, the quest for new-fangled phrases and little-known words comes from a puerile and pedantic ambition.

Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book than my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life; not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.

What kind of truth is this which is true on one side of a mountain and false on the other?

I love a gay and sociable wisdom, and shun harshness and austerity in behaviour, holding every surly countenance suspect.

The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.

Let [children] be able to do all things, and love to do only the good.