The avocation of assessing the failures of better men can be turned into a comfortable livelihood, provided you back it up with a Ph.D.

American critics are like American universities. They both have dull and half-dead faculties.

I used to care what people thought about me, until one day, I tried to pay my bills with their opinions.

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.

There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies; his senses awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds more firmly established. In logic they teach that contraries laid together more evidently appear; and controversy being permitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth more true.

To admire nothing is the motto which men of the world always affect. They think it vulgar to wonder or be enthusiastic. They have so much corruption and charlatanism, that they think the credit of all high policies must be delusive.

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.

Cynicism is cheap – you can buy it at any Monoprix store – it’s built into all poor-quality goods.

Censure is often useful, praise often deceitful.

Many receive a criticism and think it is fine; think they got their money’s worth; think well of the teacher for it, and then go on with their work just the same as before. That is the reason much of the wisdom of Plato is still locked up in the pages of Plato.