The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.

The most intangible, and therefore the worst, kind of a lie is a half truth. This is the peculiar device of a conscientious detractor.

He who has no pleasure in looking up, is not fit so much as to look down.

Fame has no necessary conjunction with praise; it may exist without the breath of a word: it is a recognition of excellence which must be felt, but need not be spoken. Even the envious must feel it: feel it, and hate in silence.

Desert being the essential condition of praise, there can be no reality in the one without the other.

Never judge a work of art by its defects.

The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.