The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.

A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Only the heart without a stain knows ease.

The older I get the more I trust in the law according to which the rose and the lily bloom.

On top of the world, or in the depths of despair.

He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.