In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.

Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

Obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness.

Wisdom... comes not from age, but from education and learning.

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

Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

He who is slowest in making a promise is most faithful in its performance.

Desire is the very essence of man.

You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can't put a dollar sign on.

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

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

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

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid

None but ourselves can free our minds.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.