[Chess] is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

The wheels are turning, but the hamsters are all dead. Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot. I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it.

If a man is indolent, let him be poor. If he is drunken, let him be poor.... Also--somewhat inconsistently--blessed are the poor!

Life is a flame that is always burning itself out; but it catches fire again every time a child is born. Life is greater than death, and hope than despair.

Every step of progress means a duty repudiated, and a scripture torn up.