Truth is a torch, but a huge one, and so it is only with blinking eyes that we all of us try to get past it, in actual terror of being burnt.
The really foolish thing in men who are otherwise intelligent is that they fail to understand what another person says, when he does not exactly hit upon the right way of saying it.
One need only grow old to become gentler in one's judgments. I see no fault committed which I could not have committed myself.
Why should those who are happy expect one who is miserable to die before them in a graceful attitude, like the gladiator before the Roman mob?
By force of habit we look at a clock that has run down as if it were still going, and we gaze at the face of a beauty as though she still loved.
Dilettantism treated seriously, and knowledge pursued mechanically, end by becoming pedantry.
No one but the master can promote the cause of Art. Patrons help the master—that is right and proper; but that does not always mean that Art is helped.
The most foolish of all errors is for clever young men to believe that they forfeit their originality in recognizing a truth which has already been recognized by others.
It is much easier to recognize error than to find truth; for error lies on the surface and may be overcome; but truth lies in the depths, and to search for it is not given to every one.
No one should desire to live in irregular circumstances; but if by chance a man falls into them, they test his character and show of how much determination he is capable.