Echoes

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.

Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

Those who are fond of praising men to their faces are also fond of damning them behind their backs.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Our sadness is not sad, but our cheap joys.

The most common form of despair is not being who you are.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Boredom is the root of all evil — the despairing refusal to be oneself.

Every faculty in one man is the measure by which he judges of the like faculty in another. I judge of your sight by my sight, of your ear by my ear, of your reason by my reason, of your resentment by my resentment, of your love by my love. I neither have, nor can have, any other way of judging about them.

There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.

The investor's chief problem — and even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love.

There is not love of life without despair about life.

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.