A writer should never be brief at the expense of being clear.

When a new truth enters the world, the first stage of reaction to it is ridicule, the second stage is violent opposition, and in the third stage, that truth comes to be regarded as self-evident.

Life to the great majority is only a constant struggle for mere existence, with the certainty of losing it at last.

The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.

Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the conscience.

No doubt, when modesty was made a virtue, it was a very advantageous thing for the fools, for everybody is expected to speak of himself as if he were one.

That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . .