“If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.”

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

One should use common words to say uncommon things.

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.

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.

A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I’m going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.

Love endures in adversity, is moderate in prosperity; brave under harsh sufferings, cheerful in good works; utterly reliable in temptation, utterly open-handed in hospitality; as happy as can be among true brothers and sisters, as patient as you can get among the false one’s.

Who acts, shall endure. So speaks the voice of the age-old wisdom.

All bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance.

Pain was something we were expected to endure. But I doubt very much if you would be entirely happy today if a doctor threw a towel in your face and jumped on you with a knife.

All through my life, I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested.

Nothing endures but personal qualities.

Here are some who like to run. They run for fun in the hot, hot sun.