[Samuel] Johnson's conversation was by much too strong for a person accustomed to obsequiousness and flattery; it was mustard in a young child's mouth!

A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.

I think character never changes; the Acorn becomes an Oak, which is very little like an Acorn to be sure, but it never becomes an Ash.

Friendship is far more delicate than love.

Tis never for their wisdom that one loves the wisest...

'Tis never for their wisdom that one loves the wisest, or for their wit that one loves the wittiest; 'tis for benevolence, and virtue, and honest fondness, one loves people...

Women bear Crosses better than Men do, but bear Surprizes - worse.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the life of a wit.

We look on those approaching the banks of a river all must cross, with ten times the interest they excited when dancing in the meadow.

I am perpetually bringing or losing babies, both very dreadful operations to me, and which tear mind and body both in pieces very cruelly.

If truth can be found in any sublunary science, numbers will produce it, for to that at last almost all other sciences refer for confirmation.

How is there freedom to choose if one does not learn how to choose?

We were meant to live courageous and bold lives and not lives of mediocrity. However, we have to live our lives actively and on purpose each day to be unstoppable.

Written words are divine footprints on earth.

No doubt the world is entirely an imaginary world, but it is only once removed from the true world.

War is just like bush-clearing-the moment you stop, the jungle comes back even thicker, but for a little while you can plant and grow a crop in the ground you have won at such a terrible cost.

Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect.

Written words still have the amazing power to bring out the best and worst of human nature

How is AIDS research to progress when the premise of science is questioning but the premise of questioning HIV is considered so dangerous that even venturing into the facts is too great a risk?

What's wrong with living in a dream world? You have to wake up.

I'm very happy for whatever plaudits might come the way of my work, but I never ever sit down to write x with y in view - whether it's a reader, a prize or a sale.