It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

At every single moment of one's life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been.

What of Art? -It is a malady. --Love? -An Illusion. --Religion? -The fashionable substitute for Belief. --You are a sceptic. -Never! Scepticism is the beginning of Faith. --What are you? -To define is to limit.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

He hasn't an enemy in the world, and none of his friend like him.

Never buy a thing you don't want merely because it is dear.

Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity.