“There is no friendship that cares about an overheard secret.”

I am a count, not a saint.

Know you not that you are my sun by day, and my star by night? By my faith! I was in deepest darkness till you appeared and illuminated all.

We are always in a hurry to be happy; for when we have suffered a long time, we have great difficulty in believing in good fortune.

On what slender threads do life and fortune hang.

I am strong against everything, except against the death of those I love. He who dies gains; he who sees others die loses.

Joy to hearts which have suffered long is like the dew on the ground after a long drought; both the heart and the ground absorb that beneficent moisture falling on them, and nothing is outwardly apparant.

The tree forsakes not the flower: the flower falls from the tree.

As a general rule…people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.

When you compare the sorrows of real life to the pleasures of the imaginary one, you will never want to live again, only to dream forever.

A weakened mind always sees everything through a black veil. The soul makes its own horizons; your soul is dark, which is why you see such a cloudy sky.

I do not often laugh, sir, as you may perceive by the air of my countenance; but nevertheless, I retain the privilege of laughing when I please.

In business, sir, one has no friends, only correspondents.

Business? It’s quite simple; it’s other people’s money.

I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.

I’m sure you’re very nice, but you’d be even nicer if you went away.

True love always makes a man better, no matter who the woman is that inspires it.

I have heard it said that an inoculation to the sights and smells of the Carolina lowcountry is an almost irreversible antidote to the charms of other landscapes, other alien geographies.

I’ve heard of their curing syphilis by giving the patient malaria, but I’ve never heard of their curing malaria by giving the patient syphilis.

We’re tired of hearing politicians and priests and cautious reformers… coax us, ‘Be calm! Be patient! Wait!

I wanted to be a farmer; actually, I wanted to be a horse-breeder. And I had the stallions… but then I heard Little Richard, and that was it.

He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.

I suffer the mortification of seeing myself attacked right and left by people at home professing patriotism and love of country who never heard the whistle of a hostile bullet.

It was like being seen after a perpetual darkness, I replied. To be heard after a lifetime of silence.

If we heard that somebody starved to death in Sweden or Switzerland, we would be shocked.