We are as answerable for what we give as for what we receive; nay, the misplacing of a benefit is worse than the not receiving of it; for the one is another person's fault, but the other is mine.

The soul has this proof of divinity: that divine things delight it.

Such is the blindness, nay the insanity of mankind, that some men are driven to death by the fear of it.

It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.

In my own time there have been inventions of this sort, transparent windows tubes for diffusing warmth equally through all parts of a building short-hand, which has been carried to such a perfection that a writer can keep pace with the most rapid speaker. But the inventing of such things is drudgery for the lowest slaves; philosophy lies deeper. It is not her office to teach men how to use their hands. The object of her lessons is to form the soul.

There is no benefit so large that malignity will not lessen it; none so narrow that a good interpretation will not enlarge it.

That poverty is no disaster is understood by everyone who has not yet succumbed to the madness of greed and luxury that turns everything topsy-turvy.