“One cannot be humble and aware of oneself at the same time.”

“The primary condition for being sincere is the same as for being humble: not to boast about it, and probably not even to be aware of it.”

“The modern ignorance is in people's assumption that they can outsmart their own nature. It is in the arrogance that will believe nothing that cannot be proved, and respect nothing it cannot understand, and value nothing it cannot sell . . . The next hard time is just as real to him as the last, and so is the next blessing. The new ignorance is the same as the old, only less aware that ignorance is the same as the old, only less aware that ignorance is what it is. It is less humble, more foolish and frivolous, more dangerous. A man, Old Jack thinks, has no choice but to be ignorant, but he does not have to be a fool. He can know his place, and he can stay in it and be faithful.”

“To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision.”

“Physical jealousy is a result of the imagination at the same time as being a self-judgment. One attributes to the rival the nasty thoughts one had oneself in the same circumstances.”

“Faith and doubt cannot reside in the same mind at the same time, for one would dispel the other.”