The century is advanced,
but every individual begins afresh.
(Goethe: Maxims and Reflections.)
Edmund Burke, «Ambition…»
Ambition can creep as well as soar.
(Edmund Burke: Letters on a Regicide Peace.)
Mencius, «The great man…»
The great man is he
who has not lost
the heart of a child.
(Mencius.)
Balzac, «It takes a nonentity…»
It takes a nonentity to think of everything.
(Balzac: Pierre Grassou.)
Montesquieu, «Mediocrity…»
Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
(Montesquieu: Mes pensées.)
Bernard Shaw, «A hero…»
You cannot be a hero
without being a coward.
(Bernard Shaw: Preface to John Bull’s Other Island.)
Pascal, «Continuous eloquence…»
Continuous eloquence is tedious.
(Pascal: Pensées.)
Jules Renard, «Taste…»
Taste ripens at the expense of happiness.
(Jules Renard: Journal.)
G. K. Chesterton, «Literature is a luxury…»
Literature is a luxury;
fiction is a necessity.
(G. K. Chesterton: The Defendant.)
Flaubert, «Of all lies…»
Of all lies, art is the least untrue.
(Flaubert.)