The great advantage of a new friend is that we have not yet found one another out.

As a child I was told by my parents that I was happy, but I did not believe them.

Moralists love to discourse on the hollowness of success; about the hollowness of failure they are silent.

A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.

Cynicism is full of naive disappointments.

Paradise endangered: garden snakes and mice are appearing in the shadowy corners of Dutch Old Master paintings.

Opportunity knocks, but doesn't always answer to its name.