There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.

Be frank and explicit. That is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and to confuse the minds of others.

All great achievements require time.

Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy

The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

Only idiots refuse to change their minds.

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

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

It is a cliche that most cliches are true, but then like most cliches, that cliche is untrue.

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

The object of the superior man is truth.

I have had good experience and trial of this world...I know what it is to be a subject, what to be a sovereign, what to have good neighbours, and sometimes meet evil willers. I have found treason in trust, seen great benefits little regarded.

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

The only real laughter comes from despair.

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

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.