An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.

Reality is not what it is. 

It consists of the many realities 

which it can be made into.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. 

Learn as if you were to live forever.

How easy it is to judge rightly 

after one sees 

what evil comes from judging wrongly!

Fair and softly goes far.

To dwell is to garden.

Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?

A man is a very small thing, 

and the night is very large 

and full of wonders.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, 

the rest is merely tenacity. 

The fears are paper tigers. 

You can do anything you decide to do. 

You can act to change and control your life; 

and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

If you fell down yesterday, 

stand up today.

A man may be so much of everything 

that he is nothing of anything.

A person is a fool to become a writer. 

His only compensation is absolute freedom.

Comedy,

we may say,

is society protecting itself

— with a smile.

War is so unjust and ugly 

that all who wage it 

must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves.

The real spiritual progress of the aspirant is measured

 by the extent to which he achieves inner tranquility.

Such fire was not by water to be drowned, 

nor he his nature changed by changing ground.

The place to improve the world 

is first 

in one's own heart 

and head 

and hands.

A writer's ambition should be 

to trade a hundred contemporary readers 

for ten readers in ten years' time 

and for one reader in a hundred years' time.

The child who concentrates is immensely happy.

The very winds whispered in soothing accents, 

and maternal Nature bade me weep no more.

Poetry is the mother-tongue of the human race.

I love men, 

not for what unites them, 

but for what divides them, 

and I want to know most of all 

what gnaws at their hearts.

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.

I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul.

One man's remorse is another man's reminiscence.

Beware the fury of a patient man.

When thinking about companions gone, 

we feel ourselves doubly alone.

Love has no age, 

no limit; 

and no death.

Men do not shape destiny, 

Destiny produces the man for the hour.

If you would be pungent, be brief; 

for it is with words as with sunbeams — 

the more they are condensed, 

the deeper they burn.

The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that 

he really is very good, 

in spite of all the people who say 

he is very good.

All human wisdom is summed up in two words: 

wait and hope.

The soul's joy lies in doing.

We cannot live only for ourselves. 

A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. 

We don't know because we don't want to know.

We cannot change anything 

until we accept it. 

Condemnation does not liberate, 

it oppresses.

The moment we want to believe something, 

we suddenly see all the arguments for it, 

and become blind to the arguments against it.

It is much easier to show compassion to animals. 

They are never wicked.

My own curiosity and interest are insatiable.

There is no friend as loyal as a book.

Bravery never goes out of fashion.

Could we teach taste or genius by rules, 

they would be no longer taste and genius.

The books that help you most 

are those which make you think the most.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

As long as I live I will have control over my being.

A pure hand needs no glove to cover it.

Not everyone can see the truth, 

but he can be it.

If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.

When you give yourself, 

you receive more than you give.