“It is easier to pretend to be what you are not than to hide what you really are; but he that can accomplish both has little to learn in hypocrisy.”

Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.

Happiness leads none of us by the same route.

Temperate men drink the most, because they drink the longest.

That cowardice is incorrigible which the love of power cannot overcome.

Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.

The Grecian’s maxim would indeed be a sweeping clause in Literature; it would reduce many a giant to a pygmy; many a speech to a sentence; and many a folio to a primer.

Most plagiarists, like the drone, have neither taste to select, industry to acquire, nor skill to improve, but impudently pilfer the honey ready prepared, from the hive.

Strong as our passions are, they may be starved into submission, and conquered without being killed.

The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age.

Ladies of Fashion starve their happiness to feed their vanity, and their love to feed their pride.

He that studies only men will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body.

The more gross the fraud the more glibly will it go down, and the more greedily be swallowed, since folly will always find faith where impostors will find imprudence.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

Some read to think, these are rare; some to write, these are common; and some read to talk, and these form the great majority.

Unlike the sun, intellectual luminaries shine brightest after they set.

There are male as well as female gossips.

Help other people to cope with their problems, and your own will be easier to cope with.

If I’ve made it a little easier for artists to work in violence, great! I’ve accomplished something.

Dropping the news to my parents that I was skipping my ‘dream education’ at Chalmers to sit at home recording videos while playing video games was not easy.

The road is narrow. He who wishes to travel it more easily must cast off all things and use the cross as his cane. In other words, he must be truly resolved to suffer willingly for the love of God in all things.

It is easier to gaze into the sun, than into the face of the mystery of God. Such is its beauty and its radiance.

It can be easy to become ‘friends’ or ‘connected’ with someone in a digital world, but it requires thought and strategy to convert social media connections into rewarding business relationships.

Let God be the air in which your heart breathes at ease.

Art hurts. Art urges voyages – and it is easier to stay at home.