Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody's else advice.

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

Unconsciously, perhaps, we treasure the power we have over people by their regard for our opinion of them, and we hate those upon whom we have no such influence.

Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue out future lives will be less afflicted.

Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.