The cause of laughter is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real project.

Every truth passes through 3 stages before it is recognized 1)ridicule 2) opposition 3) accepted as self-evident.

It is only when a man is alone that he is really free.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.

Our first ideas of life are generally taken from fiction rather than fact.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

Poverty and slavery are thus only two forms ofthe same thing, the essence of which is that a man's energies are expended for the most part not on his own behalf but on that of others.