The art of listening needs its highest development in listening to oneself; our most important task is to develop an ear that can really hear what we're saying.

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure.

As we grow older, we should learn that these are two quite different things. Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. Some people have easy temperaments and weak characters; others have difficult temperaments and strong characters. We are all prone to confuse the two in assessing people we associate with. Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable.

It's odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that English is the only major language in which "I" is capitalized; in many other languages "You" is capitalized and the "i" is lower case." --

Nice things are done for our own sake, not for the sake of others. The pleasure must reside in the performance, not in the applause. Good deeds are, in a deeper psychological way, a favor to oneself. If this is not grasped, then our whole sense of personal relationships becomes warped.

Those obsessed with health are not healthy; the first requisite of good health is a certain calculated carelessness about oneself.