When he is in the room with other persons, speech stops, as if there were a corpse in the apartment. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838 journal, about Jones Very
A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide. – Samuel Butler
The short sayings of the wise and good men are of great value, like the dust of gold, or the sparks of diamonds. – Attributed to Tillotson in A Dictionary of Thoughts: A Cyclopedia of Laconic Quo
I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
