“Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music, or pictures, or architecture, or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.” — Samuel Butler

“The uglier a man’s legs are, the better he plays golf. It’s almost a law.” — H.G. Wells

“Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.” — Thomas Jefferson

“The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.” — Daniel Boorstin

“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.” — Montesquieu

“I used to wake up at 4 a.m. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion it must be an allergy to consciousness.” — James Thurber

“He who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning.” — Danish proverb

Locke was asked how he had contrived to accumulate a mine of knowledge so rich, yet so extensive and deep. He replied that he attributed what little he knew to the not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to the rule he had laid down of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics chiefly that formed their own particular profession and pursuits. The best-informed men are undoubtedly those who adopt this rule.

— The Leisure Hour, 1883

“Cleanliness is almost as bad as godliness.” — Samuel Butler

“Everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.” — Tolstoy