“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.”

Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off.

Your strength is just an accident owed to the weakness of others.

The human heart is vast enough to contain all the world.

Protection is the first necessity of opulence and luxury.

It occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility.

It is the mark of an inexperienced man not to believe in luck.

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.

Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.

Follow your bliss. Find where it is and don’t be afraid to follow it.

Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys.

The mind of man is capable of anything.

It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.

To be busy with material affairs is the best preservative against reflection, fears, doubts, all these things which stand in the way of achievement. I suppose a fellow proposing to cut his throat would experience a sort of relief while occupied in stropping his razor carefully.

Everybody had to be thoroughly understood before being accepted.

To be a great autocrat you must be a great barbarian.

I don’t like work but I like what is in work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself, not for others – which no other man can ever know.