The proverb says that Providence protects children and idiots. This is really true. I know because I have tested it.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others.

Compliments make me vain: & when I am vain, I am insolent & overbearing. It is a pity, too, because I love compliments. I love them even when they are not so. My child, I can live on a good compliment two weeks with nothing else to eat.

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

The timid man yearns for full value and demands a tenth. The bold man strikes for double value and compromises on par.

I have at last, after several months' experience, made up my mind that [New York] is a splendid desert--a domed and steepled solitude, where the stranger is lonely in the midst of a million of his race.