“Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability.”

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.

Wealth is like seawater; the more we drink, the thirstier we become, and the same is true of fame.

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man.

The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.

We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack.

Animals hear about death for the first time when they die.

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Mostly it is a loss that teaches us about the worth of things.

Reading is thinking with someone else’s head instead of one’s own.

The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.

If God made this world, then I would not want to be the God. It is full of misery and distress that it breaks my heart.

There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild, and lawless.

I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond the daily life.

There is nothing more important in life than giving. Tolerance is forged when people look beyond their own desires.

Everyone has been made for some particular work and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but, because of lack of commitment.

If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire brings a small amount of heat.

The starting point of all achievement is desire.