If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much — and then performed so little.

Night gives a black look to everything, whatever it may be.

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.

We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.

In many cases hate a person is rooted in the involuntary estimate of its virtues.

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