Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books what other men do not say in whole books

Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, where he is FREE from the crowd, the many, the majority-- where he may forget "men who are the rule," as their exception;-- exclusive only of the case in which he is pushed straight to such men by a still stronger instinct, as a discerner in the great and exceptional sense.

What? A great man? I only ever see the ape of his own ideal.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.