Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.

He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.

The only solid and lasting peace between a man and his wife is, doubtless, a separation.

Custom has made dancing sometimes necessary for a young man; therefore mind it while you learn it, that you may learn to do it well, and not be ridiculous, though in a ridiculous act.

To govern mankind, one must not overrate them.

The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it.

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.

Our prejudices are our mistresses; reason is at best our wife, very often heard indeed, but seldom minded.

A man of sense only trifles with them, plays with them, humors and flatters them, as he does with a sprightly and forward child; but he neither consults them about, nor trusts them with, serious matters.

Words, which are the dress of thoughts, deserve surely more care than clothes, which are only the dress of the person.

Distrust all those who love you extremely upon a very slight acquaintance and without any visible reason.

Whoever incites anger has a strong insurance against indifference.

Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning a bow, immediately.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

Take the tone of the company you are in.

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

I am very sure that any man of common understanding may, by culture, care, attention, and labor, make himself what- ever he pleases, except a great poet.

Character must be kept bright as well as clean.

In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.

Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners.

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.

The mere brute pleasure of reading - the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

The rich are always advising the poor, but the poor seldom return the compliment.

Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.

Pleasure is a necessary reciprocal. No one feels, who does not at the same time give it. To be pleased, one must please. What pleases you in others, will in general please them in you.

If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.

Swift speedy time, feathered with flying hours, Dissolves the beauty of the fairest brow.

Knowledge of the world in only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.

I find, by experience, that the mind and the body are more than married, for they are most intimately united; and when one suffers, the other sympathizes.

The more one works, the more willing one is to work.

I sometimes give myself admirable advice, but I am incapable of taking it.

Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding.

When a person is in fashion, all they do is right.

A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.

Sporting behaviour means fair behaviour. This is the player's task, not the referee's.

I have played football since I was five years old. This is my core skill and it will always remain so.

Many great teams have players who have come through the youth system or have been at the club for a long time as their captains. I'm thinking of Steven Gerrard at Liverpool, John Terry at Chelsea, Raul at Real Madrid, as well as Puyol at Barcelona and Gary Neville at Man United.

History shows that it is incredibly tough for a defender to be named Footballer of the Year because over the course of a year there is normally always a forward who steals the headlines up front.

Cruyff's idea was, quite literally, to play football - nothing more, nothing less. His idea of how football should be played was based not on controlling the opponent, but on the ball and the game.

We make adjustments and changes before and sometimes also during the games in order adapt to the opposition. The manager will, for example, tell the striker to make different runs or position the central midfielders slightly differently in relation to each other.

It's not enough to buy good players, one has to develop a team.

In football, surprises are always possible.

Our sport needs lethal strikers, goalscorers, heroes. But football is much more than the moment of triumph.

The most important thing is that we play as a team. It means to attack together but to defend together as well.

Football is teamwork, unity, defence, assists, sacrifice.

Clubs like Manchester United or Barcelona have a system, and then you hire personnel who fit this system.

If you do the job out there on the pitch and you have it under control, as in my case, you want more. You want more responsibility. You want to take care of it all. That is the case with me.

Except for two years in Stuttgart, I have always worn the FCB jersey.

I experienced how Pep Guardiola worked every day. He had football on his mind round the clock: 'What system does the opponent like to play? How do I want to set up my team, who do I want in which position?'

AC Milan would never have been the same club without Paolo Maldini or Franco Baresi and they certainly would have never had the same amount of success.