What makes friendship indissolute and what doubles its charms is a feeling we find lacking in love: I mean certitude.

When there is an old maid in the house, a watchdog is unnecessary.

When attempted self-destruction does not cure a man of life, it cures him of voluntary death.

A careful observation of Nature will disclose pleasantries of superb irony. She has for instance placed toads close to flowers.

He hesitated till the last moment, but finally dropped them in the box, saying, "I shall win!"--the cry of a gambler, the cry of the great general, the compulsive cry that has ruined more men than it has ever saved.

Life in clubs is no paltry sign of the times we live in. Here gentlemen gamble with others whom they would not dream of inviting to their homes.

Envy lurks at the bottom of the human heart like a viper in its hole.