It's no disgrace to be a private, you know. Socrates was a plain foot soldier, a hoplite.

I have begun in old age to understand...that we seldom if ever realize how generous we are to ourselves, and just how stingy with others.

The challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up. The danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature. (Referenced in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young)

From Euclid to Newton there were straight lines. The modern age analyzes the wavers.

It's not up to me ... to make the world consistent.

Strict seriousness was far more dangerous than any joke.

A man must have limits and cannot give in to the wild desires to be everything and everyone and everything to everyone.