You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing and absolutely nothing other than that one thing.

Scoundrels are always sociable.

And yet, just as our body would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere were removed from it, so would the arrogance of men expand, if not to the point of bursting then to that of the most unbridled folly, indeed madness, if the pressure of want, toil, calamity and frustration were removed from their life. One can even say that we require at all times a certain quantity of care or sorrow or want, as a ship requires ballast, in order to keep on a straight course.

We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack.

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

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.

In order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were not much more difficult to satisfy than those of the brute. Hence luxury in all its forms; delicate food, the use of tobacco and opium, spirituous liquors, fine clothes, and the thousand and one things that he considers necessary to his existence.