“Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book.”

But wise is the man who disdains no character, but with searching glance explores him to the root and cause of all.

In the end dreams became his life, and his whole life thereafter took a strange turn: one might say he slept while waking and watched while asleep.

They don’t listen to me, they don’t hear me, they don’t see me.

How much savage coarseness is concealed in refined, cultivated manners.

Two turtle doves will show thee Where my cold ashes lie And sadly murmuring tell thee How in tears I did die.

For public opinion does not admit that lofty rapturous laughter is worthy to stand beside lofty lyrical emotion and that there isall the difference in the world between it and the antics of a clown at a fair.

We ought to thank God for that. Yes, the man who tills the land is more worthy of respect than any.

Steeds, steeds, what steeds! Has the whirlwind a home in your manes?

Don’t blame the mirror if your face is faulty.

However stupid a fools words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.

it’s not my job to preach a sermon. Art is anyhow a homily. My job is to speak in living images, not in arguments. I must exhibit life full-face, not discuss life.

I tell everyone very plainly that I take bribes, but what kind of bribes? Why, greyhound puppies. That’s a totally different matter.

Countless are, as the sand in the sea, the deep desires of men, and none resembles the other, and all of them, whether shameful, or great, in the beginning are obedient, but later become terrible masters over him.

Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord.

The more debris there is the more it will show the governor’s activity.

A time of famine and poverty will come and the people as a whole as well as every individual in it will suffer.

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

It’s a pleasant thing to be young, and have ten toes.

There may be good, but there are no pleasant marriages.

People’s personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.

If the pros at Sun had had a chance to fix Java, the world would be a much more pleasant place.

My first experience in the Netherlands was very pleasant, extremely pleasant. I mean, I got my residence permit, refugee status, within four weeks of arrival. People treated me extremely well.

Sure, I suffered a lot. But it’s not like the end of the world and it’s not who I am. I lead quite a pleasant life and I’m able to divorce a perceived reality from my actual experience of life.

I love the way they run in fright when I turn on the kitchen light. And when I squish them on the ground, they make a pleasant crunchy sound.