I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.

Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are its tormented souls.

The ultimate foundation of honor is the conviction that moral character is unalterable: a single bad action implies that future actions of the same kind will, under similar circumstances, also be bad.

If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness, revelry, high life.

What give all that is tragic, whatever its form, the characteristic of the sublime, is the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction, and are not worth our investment in them. The tragic spirit consists in this. Accordingly it leads to resignation.