One should use common words to say uncommon things

There is one respect in which beasts show real wisdom... their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.

For it is a matter of daily observation that people take the greatest pleasure in that which satisfies their vanity; and vanity cannot be satisfied without comparison with others.

That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can be accomplished by a machine.

If you feel irritated by the absurd remarks of two people whose conversation you happen to overhear, you should imagine that you are listening to a dialogue of two fools in a comedy.

Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will.

No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.