Men are too unstable to be just; they are crabbed because they have not passed water at the usual time, or testy because they have not been stroked or praised.

A strong foe is better than a weak friend.

The ruin of the human heart is self-interest, which the American merchant calls self-service. We have become a self-service populace, and all our specious comforts -the automatic elevator, the escalator, the cafeteria -are depriving us of volition and moral and physical energy.

Every decision you make is a mistake.

Perhaps Samuel Johnson was a great man; he was certainly a drumbling one.

We are ruled by chance but never have enough patience to accept its despotism.

Everything ultimately fails, for we die, and that is either the penultimate failure or our most enigmatical achievement.