Self denial is not a virtue: it is only the effect of prudence on rascality

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men's imperfections, and conceal your own.

Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world.

A man's interest in the world is only the overflow of his interest in himself

I tell you that as long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it in to existence or clearing the way for it.

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect