The success of many books is due to the affinity between the mediocrity of the author's ideas and those of the public.

If it wasn't for me, I'd do brilliantly.

Nearly all men are slaves for the same reason that the Spartans assigned for the servitude of the Persians -- lack of power to pronounce the syllable, "No." To be able to utter that word and live alone, are the only means to preserve one's freedom and one's character.

Be my brother or I will kill you.

Spero Speroni explains admirably how an author who writes very clearly for himself is often obscure to his readers. "It is," he says, "because the author proceeds from the thought to the expression, and the reader from the expression to the thought.

The threat of a neglected cold is for doctors what the threat of purgatory is for priests-a gold mine.

One must not hope to be more than one can be.