To overestimate the originality of one's thoughts is perhaps a less serious defect than being unaware of their newness. There is a more pronounced lack of sensitivity in underestimating (ourselves and others) than in overestimating.

It is apparently vital that we should be in the dark about ourselves - not to be clear about our intentions, fears, and hopes. There is a stubborn effort in us…

Good writing, like gold, combines lustrous lucidity with high density. What this means is good writing is packed with hints.

Universities are an example of organizations dominated wholly by intellectuals; yet, outside pure science, they have not been an optimal milieu for the unfoldi…

I couldn't regard myself as personally repulsive. No man can, or, if he ever comes to do so, that is the end of him.

For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believ…

The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.