A truly successful person knows how to overcome the past, use the present, and prepare for the future-but unless we can first surmount the past, we cannot effectively cope with either the present or the future.

Being yourself is not remaining what you were, or being satisfied with what you are. It is the point of departure and far from the goal.

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, his is also one who is permanently disappointed in the future.

The severest test of character is not so much the ability to keep a secret as it is, when the secret is finally out, to refrain from disclosing that you knew it all along.

We believe what we want to believe, what we like to believe, what suits our prejudices and fuels our passions.

Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.

The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes them a mother - which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician.