Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

Take care of the pieces well. The whole will take care of itself.

Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.

Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.

I mistrust the judgement of every man in a case in which his own wishes are concerned.

Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.

The ethos of redemption is realized in self-mastery, by means of temperance, that is, continence of desires.

Think no vice so small that you may commit it, and no virtue so small that you may over look it.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.

True knowledge lies in knowing how to live.

It is not the strength, but the duration, of great sentiments that makes great men.

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

It is a wise man that does know the contented man is never poor, whilst the discontented man is never rich.

It is easy to be brave at a safe distance.

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

The smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.