Masks, Mirrors, and Alibis

The most failed person: one who cannot see his flaws. The most miserable: one who cannot love. The happiest: one who cannot hate. The most successful: one who learns from his mistakes.

The one in error is the one who sees himself as the only one who is right.

You have not failed; the whole matter is that you have not arrived yet.

Love yourself; you deserve it and want it, but you refuse to say so openly.

I am not humble, and I do not claim humility. All I have is a limited set of skills and advantages; if I were not vain enough to display them, I would look like a plain zero.

Until this moment I am the worst person I have known on earth, and at the same time the best. No wonder: I alone see the whole picture and all its sides. From there I fully understand why everyone who hates me hates me, and why everyone who loves me loves me.

In people’s eyes, the sensitive person is someone who must not be bothered. Most of the time he is only a hysterical scoundrel or sharp-tongued nuisance. They are really avoiding harm to themselves from the consequences of annoying him, while the truly sensitive person usually hides his distress.

A person’s wisdom is usually inversely proportional to his satisfaction with himself, and directly proportional to his satisfaction with his circumstances.

I have never regretted anything I did. I regret only the things I did not do.

My enemy’s attempt to destroy me has a more positive effect than my friend’s attempt to set me straight. Naturally, a person resists outside pressure and reacts in the opposite direction, except in very rare cases.

I never accept accusations of stupidity and ignorance. Personally, I do not consider anyone stupid, and I never direct that accusation at anyone, except the person who accuses others of stupidity. On the other hand, there really are many ignorant people.

The thought that I will not live forever troubles me, and just as much the thought that death may be late or may not come at the right moment. And yet the situation is perfectly ideal; if I were now given the choice between living forever and dying this very instant, I could not choose.

A person’s circumstances are not determined by what surrounds him, but by what is inside his head.

I tried often to change, until I realized that I was created this way and would never change. Then I changed.

Their measures are crooked. By them, the shy, tolerant, quiet person becomes someone with no confidence, and the rude, boastful, noisy person becomes a daring, unshakably confident hero.

A final and decisive verdict: first impressions are always wrong, or at least incomplete, and therefore wrong as well.

Vision is either completely dark, or the intensity of light blinds your eyes.

I do not trust a person who tells me he is shy; if he were, he would not have the ability to declare it.

I have never found anyone who hates me for no reason, but very often the reason is imaginary or fabricated.

Your success in holding yourself together and receiving bad news calmly is always taken as a sign of indifference.

Respect everyone. Submit to no one. Love yourself first.