“Joy is a subtle elf; I think one's happiest when he forgets himself.”

“In order to be successful in any undertaking, I think the main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause. In proportion as one loses himself in this way, in the same degree does he get the highest happiness out of his work.”

“Intoxicating joy it is for the sufferer to look away from his suffering and forget himself. Intoxicating joy and self-forgetting, the world once seemed to me.”

“Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.”

“When he grew old, Aristotle, who is not generally considered a tightrope dancer, liked to lose himself in the most labyrinthine and subtle of discourses […]. ‘The more solitary and isolated I become, the more I come to like stories,’ he said.”

“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. ”