“The world is my idea.”

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.

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

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.