Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?

If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

Malice often takes the garb of truth.

No really great man ever thought himself so.

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud.