Too elevated qualities often unfit a man for society. We do not go to market with ingots, but with silver and small change.

The best philosophical attitude to adopt towards the world is a union of the sarcasm of gaiety with the indulgence of contempt.

In living and in seeing other men, the heart must break or become as bronze.

Someone has said that to plagiarise from the ancients is to play the pirate beyond the Equator, but that to steal from the moderns is to pick pockets at street corners.

At the sight of what goes on in the world, the most misanthropic of men must end by being amused, and Heraclitus must die laughing.

Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.

Anticipation leads the way to victory, and is the spur to conquest.