Patience is a byproduct of growth - we can bide our time when it is the time of our growth. There is no patience in acquisition or in the pursuit of power and fame. Nothing is so impatient as the pursuit of a substitute for growth.
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat.
The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves.
The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.
Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.
To the old, the new is usually bad news.
Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.
Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.
In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully.
It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.