Fame is an accident; merit a thing absolute.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.

I am, as I am; whether hideous, or handsome, depends upon who is made judge.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

Toil is man's allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that's more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.

Meditation and water are wedded for ever.

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up.

War should be carried on like a monsoon; one changeless determination of every particle towards the one unalterable aim.

Intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas.

I had never been as resigned to ready-made ideas as I was to ready-made clothes perhaps because although I couldn't sew I could think.

When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.

If we only knew that we could have anything we wanted we would set more goals.

The cell never acts; it reacts.

And if I have to die trying, I will get out of here.

The most effective comeback to an insult is silence.

Great improvisers are like priests... they are thinking only of their God

All things began in Order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again, according to the Ordainer of Order, and the mystical mathematicks of the City of Heaven.