I can't bear fishing. I think people look like fools sitting watching a line hour after hour-or else throwing and throwing, and catching nothing.

What a different result one gets by changing the metaphor!

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.

Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?

There's good chances and bad chances, and nobody's luck is pulled only by one string.

The difficult task of knowing another soul is not for young gentlemen whose consciousness is chiefly made up of their own wishes.

If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment.