The only real laughter comes from despair.

It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

In moments of great grief, that’s where you look and immerse yourself. You realise you are not immortal, you are not a god, you are part of the natural world and you come to accept that.

He who can destroy a thing, can control a thing.

A precedent embalms a principle.

When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are

Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

You always admire what you really don't understand.

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.

Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.

Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

Desire, ignorance, and inequality—this is the trinity of bondage.

Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please.

It is man that makes truth great, not truth that makes man great.