When a man is not amused, he feels an involuntary contempt for those who are.

A pipe is the fountain of contemplation, the source of pleasure, the companion of the wise; and the man who smokes, thinks like a philosopher and acts like a Samaritan.

There is no such thing as luck. It's a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes.

Revenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed.

Kindness like light speaks in the air it gilds.

In some exquisite critical hints on "Eurythmy," Goethe remarks, "that the best composition in pictures is that which, observing the most delicate laws of harmony, so arranges the objects that they by their position tell their own story." And the rule thus applied to composition in painting applies no less to composition in literature.

Genius has no brother.