Marco Polo tells the tale of The Old Man in the Mountains and how he recruits new members to his Band of Assassins by means of drugs, beautiful women, lush gardens, and religious promises. The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.

There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.

The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible.

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.