However, I must not indulge in homespun wisdom here before so distinguished an assembly, especially as I am to be followed by a representative of science. – Knut Hamsun
The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practiced, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good. – Pierre Charron
Without this ridiculous vanity that takes the form of self-display, and is part of everything and everyone, we would see nothing, and nothing would exist. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Every step and every movement of the multitude, even in what are termed enlightened ages, are made with equal blindness to the future and nations stumble upon establishments, which are indeed the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design. – Adam Ferguson
