It is often a mistake to combine two pleasures, because pleasures, like pains, can act as counter-irri-tants to each other.

I have myself a poetical enthusiasm for pigs, and the paradise of my fancy is one where pigs have wings. But it is only men, especially wise men, who discuss whether pigs can fly; we have no particular proof that pigs ever discuss it.

There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

Each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

Government has become ungovernable; that is, it cannot leave off governing. Law has become lawless; that is, it cannot see where laws should stop. The chief feature of our time is the meekness of the mob and the madness of the government.

Tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe in anything.