Aphorisms
(page 19)
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
A schoolteacher or professor cannot educate individuals, he educates only species.
We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Never complain and never explain.
Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.
Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.
I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.
It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
What's done can't be undone.
The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.
Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.
There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
