He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.

Erudition can produce foliage without bearing fruit.

There exists a species of transcendental ventriloquism by means of which men can be made to believe that something said on earth comes from Heaven.

Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.

If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.

Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads.

To read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings is paying off one's debts.

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

He who understands the wise is wise already.

Caught in your youniverse again? Try reaching out to the one besides you!

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.” Easy enough to say when you’re a Roman nobleman (or Shakespeare!), but there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars.

Apology reminds us that each person (including ourselves) deserves to be respected and treated fairly.

I think the free market model of commercial trade openness - this model has undoubtedly shown enormous benefits for nations, for those of us that follow this model, of course.

The deal is that women have entered the workforce, but they have not been relieved of the domestic responsibilities.

Choose what to believe. He wanted the truth. Why was everybody so determined that he should not get it.

We are all naturally xenophobic.

Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. We must not permit anything to stand between us and the book that could change our lives.

I love men who know when to put their foot down and when not to.

My novels tend to come about from a fusion of two big ideas, creating a critical mass that then fissions, throwing off hundreds of other particles, riffs, tropes and characters.