Lying very still and thinking very little is the most inexpensive medicine for all the sicknesses of the soul, and when administered with good intentions it grows more and more pleasant with each passing hour.

If we make sacrifices in doing good or in doing ill, it does not alter the ultimate value of our actions; even if we stake our life in the cause, as martyrs do for the sake of our church : it is a sacrifice to our longing for power, or for the purpose of conserving our sense of power.

To be moral, correct, and virtuous is to be obedient to an old established law and custom.

Something unappeased, unappeasable, is within me.

We grow hostile to many an artist or writer, not because we finally come to see he has deceived us, but because he thought no subtler means were required to ensnare us.

And so do you suppose it must be a piece-work because it has been given to you (and could only be given to you) in pieces?

The more a person indulges himself the less others are willing to indulge him.