But I was right. I think that must be an hereditary quality, for my father says he is scarcely ever wrong.

To be sure a stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man!

But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it.

He had not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his bones, and leanness goes a great way towards gentility.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

I look at [books] as a child looks at cakes - with glittering eyes and a watering mouth, imagining the pleasure that awaits him.

There is nothing like wounded affection for giving poignancy to anger.

Anticipation was the soul of enjoyment.

Those who are happy and successful themselves are too apt to make light of the misfortunes of others.

I dare not hope. I never was fainthearted before; but I cannot believe such a creature cares for me.

But the future must be met, however stern and iron it be.

At home I am a man, at work I am a machine.

To my utter despair I have discovered, and discover every day anew, that there is in the masses no revolutionary idea or hope or passion.

Envy and jealousy are incurable diseases.

I think I have a reputation for being really serious. In interviews I use big words, but I'm just an emotional goofball. I play practical jokes all the time.

For me retiring wasn't hard once I knew that that was the decision I was going to make.

Let me begin by saying that I am one of those naturally wary people who considers the verb return a kind of insidious threat.

Don't imagine that you'll discover {the truth} by accumulating more knowledge. Knowledge creates doubt, and doubt makes you ravenous for more knowledge. You can't get full eating this way.

I began to measure things in absence instead of presence.

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the proneness of the human mind to take miracles as evidence, and to seek for miracles as evidence.

Esther, however, was the only woman who understood one very simple thing: in order to be able to find her, I first had to find myself.