Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while read more

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves.

Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. read more

Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is both an unfinished animal and an unfinished man. It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things. For, in the attempt to finish himself, man becomes a creator. Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing.

A man is never more his single separate self than when he sets out on a journey.

A man is never more his single separate self than when he sets out on a journey.

It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands read more

It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it.

The greatest people will be those who possess the best capacities, cultivated with the best habits.

The greatest people will be those who possess the best capacities, cultivated with the best habits.

The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that read more

The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breeds pride and arrogance.

Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild harmless, rather read more

Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters.