To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one's own.

Do you feel gloomy? Lift your eyes. Stand on your feet. Say a few words of appreciation and love to the lord. Be positive.

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.

We can secure other people’s approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that.

A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than they need.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

I have yet to find a man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.

I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it.

If we judge ourselves only by our aspirations and everyone else only their conduct we shall soon reach a very false conclusion.

You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.

The lion doesn't turn around when the small dog barks.

Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence.

In walking, the will and the muscles are so accustomed to working together and performing their task with so little expenditure of force that the intellect is left comparatively free.

It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.

The first method of estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.

I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.