It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.

We cannot fling ourselves into the blank future; we can only call up images from the past. This being so, the important principle follows, that how many images we have largely depends on how much past we have.

Every man who will not have softening of the heart must at last have softening of the brain

A great city is the place to escape the true drama of provincial life, and find solace in fantasy.

I have argued with him on almost every subject in the world, and we have always been on opposite sides, without affectation or animosity... It is necessary to disagree with him as much as I do, in order to admire him as I do; and I am proud of him as a foe even more than as a friend.

'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'

We can’t turn life into a pleasure. But we can choose such pleasures as are worthy of us and our immortal souls.