Well, everybody has a history.

Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.

De Tocqueville considered the impulse toward well-being as one of the strongest impulses of a democratic society. He can't be blamed for underestimating the destructive powers generated by this same impulse.

A writer is a reader moved to emulation.

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

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Here we write well when we expose frauds and hypocrites. We are great at counting warts and blemishes and weighting feet of clay. In expressing love, we belong among the underdeveloped countries.