“Watch a man in times of adversity to discover what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off.”

“So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.”

“What kind of man the mendicant?Look inward you who ask;For every man's a mendicantBehind his haughty mask.”

“For not only is an odd man "not always" a particular and isolated case, but, on the contrary, it sometimes happens that it is precisely he, perhaps, who bears within himself the heart of the whole, while the other people of his epoch have all for some reason been torn away from it for a time by some kind of flooding wind.”

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

“A man's calling is written on his true heart, and he discovers it when he enters the frontier of his deep desires.”