Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!

There is something very morbid about modern sympathy with pain.

In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin.

What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colorless. By its curiosity Sin increases the experience of the race. Through its intensified assertion of individualism it saves us from monotony of type. In its rejection of the current notions about morality, it is one with the higher ethics.

A beautiful woman risking everything for a mad passion. A few wild weeks of happiness cut short by a hideous, treacherous crime. Months of voiceless agony, and then a child born in pain. The mother snatched away by death, the boy left to solitude and the tyranny of an old and loveless man. Yes, it was an interesting background. It posed the lad, made him more perfect as it were. Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob.

A beggar hates his benefactor as much as he hates himself for begging.