Humanity unceasingly strives forward from a lower, more partial and obscure understanding of life to one more general and more lucid.

When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.

A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.

Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody thinks about changing himself.

Once we're thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost, but it's only here that the new and the good begins.

An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person's main task in life—becoming a better person.

Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know.

Men pray to the Almighty to relieve poverty. But poverty comes not from God's laws-it is blasphemy of the worst kind to say that. Poverty comes from man's injustice to his fellow man.

My double drags his coffin, humble slave, I, at least, am real, though changed to flesh.Far-off, I build me a church no hand can shape("Winter Sonnets: III")

I determine my own worth. If I had to rely on others, I'd have lain down and died waiting.

Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

When you come to Venice, you do special work.

The constancy of the wise is only the art of keeping disquietude to one's self.

If you have the least doubt about it, do not marry.

The fetus is the property of the entire society.

By voting for a candidate, we're not endorsing a particular lifestyle. We're simply voting on the issues.

If you believe you are plenty, you will validate that belief and create plenty of abundance.

Why should any country continue, forever, to be "great"?