Isolation always perverts; when a man lives only among his own sort, he soon begins to believe that his sort are the best sort. This attitude breeds both the arrogance of the conservative and the bitterness of the radical.

Every rule in the book can be broken, except one - be who you are, and become all you were meant to be.

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face.

When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'

A famously wise old man in a village was once asked how he came by his wisdom. "I got it from my good judgment," he answered. And where did his good judgment come from? "I got it from my bad judgment."

History repeats itself, but in such cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done.

Filth is always a sign of weakness - in the mouth of the user and in the mind of the writer.