The drama is make-believe. It does not deal with truth but with effect.

I wonder how anyone can have the face to condemn others when he reflects upon his own thoughts.

The nature of men and women - their essential nature - is so vile and despicable that if you were to portray a person as he really is, no one would believe you.

Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.

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.

He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.

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