The man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something that will always be useful and which never will grow dim or doubtful.

The average man don't like trouble and danger.

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory

We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.

Nothing so focuses the mind as the prospect of being hanged.

Life is but a dream, a grotesque and foolish dream.

More than once I had seen a noble who had gotten his enemy at a disadvantage stop to pray before cutting his throat.