People are ridiculous only when they try or seem to be that which they are not.

He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much a master of the world as he who is ready to die.

No one is so completely disenchanted with the world, or knows it so thoroughly, or is so utterly disgusted with it, that when it begins to smile upon him he does not become partially reconciled to it.

If the best company is that which we leave feeling most satisfied with ourselves, it follows that it is the company we leave most bored.

He who doubts, knows - knows as much as can be known.

The greater part of the people we assign to educate our sons we know for certain are not educated. Yet we do not doubt that they can give what they have not received, a thing which cannot be otherwise acquired.

The old man, especially if he is in society in the privacy of his thoughts, though he may protest the opposite, never stops believing that, through some singular exception of the universal rule, he can in some unknown and inexplicable way still make an impression on women.