“Do you think that the things people make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? They are more true: they are the only things that are true.”

“A man learns to skate by staggering about and making a fool of himself. Indeed he progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself.”

“[Man] progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself.”

“People do not become great by doing great things. They do great things because they are great.”

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

“There is, on the whole, nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a school. To begin with, it is a prison. But in some respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for instance, you are not forced to read books written by the warders and the governor. . . .In the prison you are not forced to sit listening to turnkeys discoursing without charm or interest on subjects that they don't understand and don't care about, and therefore incapable of making you understand or care about. In a prison they may torture your body; but they do not torture your brains.”

“Suppose the world were only one of God's jokes, would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one?”