It is very difficult to be learned; it seems as if people were worn out on the way to great thoughts, and can never enjoy them because they are too tired.

You must mind and not lower the Church in people's eyes by seeming to be frightened about it for such a little thing.

We are always falling in love or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.

That may be a ... distraction,

Acclaim is a distraction.

Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student.