This very Rome that we behold deserves our love ...: the only common and universal city.

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.

A lie set down on paper in wet ink becomes the truth when dry.

I can only answer for Chuck Grassley; I can't answer for anybody else.

Success is more about doing the things you know you should do than discovering the secrets you don't yet know.

Charity should be spontaneous. Calculated altruism is an affront.

Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?

When I was 23 I started writing for I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again and was paid three guineas for every minute's airtime.

True love, especially first love, can be so tumultuous and passionate that it feels like a violent journey.

One of the most detestable habits of Lilliputian minds is to find their own littleness in others.

If beer got any lighter you could raise goldfish in it.

I think writing is such a great talent, and if I was better I would love to be a writer.