If you must commit suicide ... always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.

There's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?

Translation is at best an echo.

There are no countries in the world less known by the British than those selfsame British Islands.

Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale.

We must walk before we run.

Youth will be served, every dog has his day, and mine has been a fine one.

It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief, which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.

A losing trade, I assure you, sir: literature is a drug.

Never ride your horse more than five-and-thirty miles a day, always taking more care of him than of yourself; which is right and reasonable, seeing as how the horse is the best animal of the two.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

If we can keep ourselves from interfering with the natural laws of life, mistakes can be our child's finest teachers.

People think the blues is sad. They hear people moaning and such. That's not the blues. That's just somebody singing slow...The blues is about truth-telling.

I'm not going to turn down an Oscar, but I'm not strategizing for one.

You be up on everything, other hoes aint ever on it

Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion .. . and the discovery of a standard of judgement.

I tell you solemnly, that I have many times tried to become an insect. But I was not equal even to that. I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness — a real thorough-going illness.

Empires won by conquest have always fallen either by revolt within or by defeat by a rival.

An individual who can freely and with a clear heart do things because they're fun is a very sane person.

This idea of having back-up plans is ingrained into us to make us believe that that's the smart thing to do.

A wasteful defense is a weak defense.