Mankind are a herd of knaves and fools. It is necessary to join the crowd, or get out of their way, in order not to be trampled to death by them.

One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.

There is a secret pride in every human heart that revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

We have more faith in a well-written romance while we are reading it than in common history. The vividness of the representations in the one case more than counterbalances the mere knowledge of the truth of facts in the other.

As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth.

That which anyone has been long learning unwillingly, he unlearns with proportional eagerness and haste.

Affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body.