A man is known by the company his mind keeps.

The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks.

The fate of the worm refutes the pretended ethical teaching of the proverb, which assumes to illustrate the advantage of early rising and does so by showing how extremely dangerous it is.

Civilization is the lamb's skin in which barbarism masquerades.

I beg you come tonight and dine A welcome waits you and sound wine The Roederer chilly to a charm As Juno's breasts the claret warm.

Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay.

It were better to be a soldier's widow than a coward's wife.