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.

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

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

Many people know how to work hard; many others know how to play well; but the rarest talent in the world is the ability to introduce elements of playfulness into work, and to put some constructive labor into our leisure.

Almost no one is foolish enough to imagine that he automatically deserves great success in any field of activity; yet almost everyone believes that he automatically deserves success in marriage.

Every rule in the book can be broken, except one - be who you are, and become all you were meant to be.