“All saints have past and all sinners have a future.”

You only have to start a job of work to realize how few decent, honest folk there are about.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as common hatred for something.

Calculating selfishness is the annihilation of self.

Every person lives his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.

Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.

Nothing can be accomplished by logic and ethics.

Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts.

A good upbringing means not that you won’t spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t notice it when someone else does.

If you wish women to love you be original; I know a man who used to wear felt boots summer and winter & women fell in love with him.

Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.

In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit.

Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.

You ask me what life is. That’s like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and there’s nothing more to know.

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.

A man and a woman marry because both of them do not know what to do with themselves.

Better is the sinner who hath thoughts about God, than the saint who hath only the show of sanctity.

I can’t reveal the mystery to either saint or sinner; I can’t state at length what I’ve said curtly; I achieve an altered state that I can’t explain; I have a secret that I cannot share.

The small man builds cages for everyone he knows While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low, Keeps dropping keys all night long For the beautiful rowdy prisoners.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, and heard great argument about it and about: but evermore came out by the same door as in I went.

My father was a saint. I’m not.

We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.

When I look up, I see people cashing in. I don’t see heaven or saints or angels. I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.

I’ll admit I’m not perfect I’m like an angel fallen from grace. I’ve been a sinner and a saint.