As a general rule, the longer a man's fame is likely to last, the later it will be in coming; for all excellent products require time for their development.

Life is a business that does not cover the costs.

Want and boredom are indeed the twin poles of human life.

A man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.

Genuine contempt, on the other hand, is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.

The fly ought to be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity; for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else, and run away even before he comes near them, the fly lights upon his very nose.

One can forget everything, everything, only not oneself, one's own being.