No truly great person ever thought themselves so.
A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.
Do not quarrel with the world too soon; for, bad as it may be, it is the best we have to live in, here. If railing would have made it better, it would have been reformed long ago.
Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.
Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
Language, if it throws a veil over our ideas, adds a softness and refinement to them, like that which the atmosphere gives to naked objects.