If content with himself and mankind, a man is never harsh or curt.

The world laughs at things it would really prefer to admire, and like Aesop's fox it criticizes things it covets.

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

The commonplace expression that life is nothing but a play is verified above all in this: the world speaks absolutely consistently in one way and acts absolutely consistently in another.

Everything since Homer has improved, except poetry.

Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything.

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