Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.

Beauty was all I’d ever cared for. It was all that ever moved me.

People forget history nowadays, he lamented, that is what the ego does, making one the prisoner of one's inflated present, ignoring the humble past one has lived.

Friendship is genuine when two friends can enjoy each others company without speaking a word to one another.

The English nation is never so great as in adversity.

He that fights and runs away Will live to fight another day.

There's no place where one can breathe as freely as on the deck of a ship.

Reading was a big thing, yes. Books were a big thing. But the things that stick out were the newspapers.

Liberty of the people is not my liberty!

The star shines for everyone in the world, but in reality, it itself is surrounded in darkness.

If two norms conflict, if they are mutually inconsistent, then at least one of them must be false.