Unless a man works he cannot find out what he is able to do.

We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest.

The only hope of preserving what is best, lies in the practice of an immense charity, a wide tolerance, a sincere respect for opinions that are not ours.

Never be afraid of What is good; the good is always the road to what is true.

Culture is like wealth; it makes us more ourselves, it enables us to express ourselves

In learning to know other things, and other minds, we become more intimately acquainted with ourselves, and are to ourselves better worth knowing.

The art of reading is to skip judiciously. Whole libraries may be skipped in these days, when we have the results of them in our modern culture without going over the ground again.

Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted, than when we read it in the original author?

The happiest life is that which constantly exercises and educates what is best in us.

Fashion is nothing more than the temporary custom of rich and idle people who make it their principal business to study the external elegance of life.

People have prejudices against a nation in which they have no acquaintances.

Do you think courage means being fearless? Or daring? Courage, real courage, is taking three steps when it terrifies you.

A true prophet would rather be believed false by many but actually true than believed true by many but actually false.

Two things don't need to be "equally bad" to point out that they're both bad.

There was something else I couldn't quite define--something that made me uneasy. We were a wrong fit, like unmatching puzzle pieces.

I don't think my paintings are self-conscious but you feel the consciousness of them. Without them being self-conscious.

Alas, passion is conducive to certain other things because when you have too much passion and you have too much work, you possibly end up having black holes. The danger is too much passion.

A grave, wherever found, preaches a short and pithy sermon to the soul.

Being a Christian means renouncing ourselves, taking up the cross and carrying it with Jesus. There is no other way.

Behind you swiftly the figure comes softly, The spot on your skin is a shocking disease.

The wonders of nature are endless.