Everybody's friend is nobody's.

Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.

Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine.

Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it.

It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.

Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.

What now on the other hand makes people sociable is their incapacity to endure solitude and thus themselves.