I pity those who have no taste for reading.

. . .the most astonishing, the most surprising, the most marvelous, the most miraculous. . . the greatest, the least, the rarest, the most common, the most public, the most private till today. . . I cannot bring myself to tell you: guess what it is.

matrimony is a very dangerous disorder; I had rather drink.

I do not like to employ secretaries that have more wit than myself. I am afraid to make them write all my nonsense.

There is nobody who is not dangerous for someone.

Fortune is always on the side of the largest battalions.

We are never satisfied with having done well; and in endeavoring to do better, we do much worse.