"He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed."

"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from."

"Viewed from the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world like a madhouse."

"Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge."

"Plato is boring."

"Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love."

"Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men."

"There are people who make things happen, those who watch what happens, and those who wonder what happened."

"The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago, had they happened to be within reach of predatory human hands."