“Not one of our mortal gauges is suitable for evaluating non-existence, for making judgments about that which is not a person.”

It’s easier to ask for money from the poor than from the wealthy.

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

The more cultured a man, the less fortunate he is.

Without a knowledge of languages you feel as if you don’t have a passport.

I observed that after marriage people cease to be curious.

Brevity – the sister of talent.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

They say philosophers and wise men are indifferent. Wrong. Indifference is a paralysis of the soul, a premature death.

For God’s sake, have some self-respect and do not run off at the mouth if your brain is out to lunch.

The unhappy are egotistical, base, unjust, cruel, and even less capable of understanding one another than are idiots. Unhappiness does not unite people, but separates them.

I can only regard with bewilderment an educated man who is also religious.

Everything on earth is beautiful, everything — except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.

Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.

When all is said and done, no literature can outdo the cynicism of real life; you won’t intoxicate with one glass someone who has already drunk up a whole barrel.

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

Fortune may raise up or abuse the ordinary mortal, but the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond her control.

A glass of good wine is a gracious creature, and reconciles poor mortality to itself and that is what few things can do.

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society.

We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we yearn for another that will be eternal.

Wisdom married to immortal verse.

Only youth has a taste of immortality.

We become immortal through our art.

It was the special purpose of Christ’s appearance upon earth to bring immortality to light.