“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing of the origin and destiny of cats?

Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

A written word is the choicest of relics.

Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

This world is but canvas to our imaginations.

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

Simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real.

It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak and another to hear.