The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.

We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.

Think globally, act locally.

I know I am but mortal and so therewhilst prepare myself for death, whensoever it shall please God to send it.

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

Those who can not change their minds can not change anything.

Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.

The ethos of redemption is realized in self-mastery, by means of temperance, that is, continence of desires.

Gravity is only the bark of wisdom's tree; but it preserves it

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres.

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.