We only see clearly when we have reached the depths of woe.

In a few generations more, there will probably be no room at all allowed for animals on the earth: no need of them, no toleration of them. An immense agony will have then ceased, but with it there will also have passed away the last smile of the world's youth.

Indifference is the invincible grant of the world.

It is quite easy for stupid people to be happy; they believe in fables, and they trot on in a beaten track like a horse on a tramway.

The art of pleasing is more based on the art of seeming pleased than people think of, and she disarmed the prejudices of her enemies by the unaffected delight she appeared to take in themselves.

There is a self-evident axiom, that she who is born a beauty is half married.

I have met a thousand scamps; but I never met one who considered himself so. Self-knowledge isn't so common.