Those who are pleased with the fewest things know the least, as those who are pleased with everything know nothing.

I maintain that there is no common language or medium of understanding between people of education and without it - between those who judge of things from books or from their senses. Ignorance has so far the advantage over learning; for it can make an appeal to you from what you know; but you cannot re-act upon it through that which it is a perfect stranger to. Ignorance is, therefore, power.

I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London.

We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.

He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.

Life is the art of being well deceived.

Old friendships are like meats served up repeatedly, cold, comfortless, and distasteful. The stomach turns against them.