We laugh at a man who, stepping out of his room at the very minute when the sun is rising, says, “It is my will that the sun shall rise”; or at him who, unable to stop a wheel, says, “I wish it to roll”; or, again, at him who, thrown in a wrestling match, says, “Here I lie, but here I wish to lie.” But, joking apart, do we not act like one of these three persons whenever we use the expression “I wish”?

The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity.

Nobody is more inferior than those who insist on being equal.

The spiritualization of sensuality is called love: it is a great triumph over Christianity.

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

The first opinion that occurs to us when we are suddenly asked about something is usually not our own but only the current one pertaining to our class, position, or parentage; our own opinions seldom swim on the surface.

Not with wrath do we kill, but with laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!