The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.

It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings.

To lose one's life is but to lose the present; and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not to lose much.

There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.

The Renaissance was a time of mercenary soldiers, ours is a time of mercenary labor.

When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.

It is a strange thing that both the injurer and the injured, the sinner and he who is sinned against, should find in the mass movement an escape from a blemished life.