“The more words you know, the more clearly and powerfully you will think...and the more ideas you will invite into your mind.”

“I have found more inspiration in the cottages of fishermen than in the palaces of the rich.”

“These men are worth your tears. You are not worth their merriment.”

“Learning requires a large dose if humility to offset our built-in arrogance, which is usually supported by deafness and massive ignorance. New knowledge can prompt us to modify our beliefs. If we want to stick to our prior convictions, we should avoid new information like the plague and close our minds to everything but the opinions that square with our own. This is the way of censors and bookburners.”

“You shall not hear their mirth:You shall not come to think them well contentBy any jest of mine. These men are worthYour tears:You are not worth their merriment.”

“And you have fixed my life — however short. You did not light me: I was always a mad comet; but you have fixed me. I spun round you a satellite for a month, but I shall swing out soon, a dark star in the orbit where you will blaze.”

“Truth is short; lies are long.”