Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

If you want to get more, appreciate and express heartfelt gratitude for what you have.

The shadow escapes from the body like an animal we had been sheltering.

For almost thirty years I repeatedly saw one and the same dream: I would arrive in Vienna at long last. I would feel really happy, for I was returning to my serene childhood.

the distinction between talent and genius is definite. Talent combines and uses; genius combines and creates.

Universal morality is to be found in little everyday penny-events just as much as in great ones.

Any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy, which qualifies life for immortality.

I was timid and frightened as a child. Yours truly did not shin up mountains or do any other kind of adventurous stuff.

If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as, 'Candle-making industry threatened'.

Mindless Christianity is no Christianity at all. You can't love what you don't know.

I was asked what I thought about the recession. I thought about it and decided not to take part.