The true, prescriptive artist strives after artistic truth; the lawless artist, following blind instinct, after an appearance of naturalness. The one leads to the highest peaks of art, the other to its lowest depths.

The world runs on from one folly to another; and the man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool.

God made man simple, but how he changed and got complicated is hard to say.

Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues.

No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.

The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.

Nothing is worth more than this day.