“Instead of inflicting these horrible punishments, it would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood, so that nobody’s under the frightful necessity of becoming, first a thief, and then a corpse.”

It is a wise mans part, rather to avoid sickness, than to wish for medicines.

See me safe up: for in my coming down, I can shift for myself.

Whoever loveth me, loveth my hound.

I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

Laws could be passed to keep the leader of a government from getting too much power.

What is deferred is not avoided.

Kindness and good nature unite men more effectually and with greater strength than any agreements whatsoever, since thereby the engagements of men’s hearts become stronger than the bond and obligation of words.

The way to heaven out of all places is of length and distance.

Oh! blame not the bard.

Those among them that have not received our religion do not fright any from it, and use none ill that goes over to it, so that all the while I was there one man was only punished on this occasion.

Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.

We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds.

There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves, but it were much better to make such good provisions by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and of dying for it.

The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable.

One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated.

I should only ever tell the king what he ought to do, not what he could do. For if the lion knows his own strength, no man could control him.

The more you can escape from how horrible things really are, the less it’s going to bother you and then, the worse things get.

A lot of horrible, unfair, untrue things have been said about me. I can only say that the best revenge is a success.

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

The accident was a horrible thing – but that horrible thing made Chris, at the end of his life, Superman. It’s a happy irony if there is such a thing. I’m proud to have known him.

If you’re horrible to me, I’m going to write a song about it, and you won’t like it. That’s how I operate.

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.

Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best.

To die for lack of love is horrible. The asphyxia of the soul.