“Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless.”

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”

“Please forgive the long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.”

“Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.”

“It is better to know something about everything then everything about something”

“There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature... and the thing which pleases us.”

“In a word, the Self has two qualities: it is unjust in itself since it makes itself the centre of everything; it is inconvenient to others since it would enslave them; for each self is the enemy, and would like to be the tyrant of all others. You take away its inconvenience, but not its injustice, and so you do not render it lovable to those who hate injustice; you render it lovable only to the unjust, who do not any longer find in it an enemy. And thus you remain unjust, and can please only the unjust”