Syllables govern the world.
Man is the only animal which esteems itself rich in proportion to the number and voracity of its parasites.
As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.
We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
Englishmen hate Liberty and Equality too much to understand them. But every Englishman loves a pedigree.
Success covers a multitude of blunders.
What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?
All that appears is devoid of independent existence, just like a magical apparition or a dream.
It’s powerful to have strong men but what does that strength mean?
The studious class are their own victims: they are thin and pale, their feet are cold, their heads are hot, the night is without sleep, the day a fear of interruption –pallor, squalor, hunger, and egotism.
Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.
We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.
Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.
An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.
We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.
As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.
Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.
Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.
