There is a melancholy that stems from greatness

In love, everything is true, everything is false; it is the one subject on which one cannot express an absurdity.

Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.

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.

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.

We need to be just before we are generous, as we need shirts before ruffles.

An author is often obscure to the reader because they proceed from the thought to expression than like the reader from the expression to the thought.