“Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and – if at all possible – speak a few sensible words.”

Nothing is more dangerous than solitude.

Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

When scholars study a thing, they strive to kill it first, if it’s alive; then they have the parts and they’ve lost the whole, for the link that’s missing was the living soul.

Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it!

Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.

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

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.

The rich want good wine, the poor, plenty of wine.

What a torment it is to see so much loveliness passing and repassing before us, and yet not dare to lay hold of it!

Is this the destiny of man? Is he only happy before he has acquired his reason or after he has lost it?

Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

Few people have the imagination for reality.

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

We evolved the ability to communicate disappointment to teach those around us good manners

There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it.

I had a good mind to discontinue permanently the supply of grain to the city, reliance on which had discouraged Italian agriculture, but refrained because some politician would be bound one day to revive the dole as a means of ingratiating himself with the people.

To be a good shepherd is to shear the flock, not skin it!

There is no kind of experience in which a Christian has a right to refuse to praise God, for ‘all things work together for good to them that love God.’

Do you know the times when one seems to stick fast in circumstances like the fly in the jam-pot? It can’t be helped, and I suppose the best thing to do is to lay in a good store of jam!

I’ve been doing it since I was prepubescent when I loved to scratch records and play good music. As it happens, you know I sort of fell into the mix. I really feel like I played a role in bringing dance music to America years ago.

The moment that any life, however good, stifles you, you may be sure it isn’t your real life.