If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth.

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.

When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces on me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool

Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.

What would life be without arithmetic, but a scene of horrors?

Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.