To seek out in a world full of joy the one thing that is certain to give you pain, and hug it to your bosom with all your strength; that's the greatest human happiness.

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

Sadness flies on the wings of the morning, and out of the heart of darkness comes the light.

When you see a woman who can go nowhere without a staff of admirers, it is not so much because they think she is beautiful, it is because she has told them they are handsome.

Little by little, the pimps have taken over the world. They don't do anything, they don't make anything - they just stand there and take their cut.

I'm not afraid of death. It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.

There is no better way of exercising the imagination than the study of law. No poet ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets the truth.

The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.

One of the privileges of the great is to witness catastrophes from a terrace.

A man's name, title, and rank are artificial and impermanent; they do nothing to reveal what he really is, even to himself.

I believe in the gods; or rather I believe that I believe in the gods. But I don't believe that they are great brooding presences watching over us; I believe they are completely absent minded.

Wisdom is the ability to see the invisible

In a discussion, the difficulty lies, not in being able to defend your opinion, but to know it.

It is more important to keep the horse going hard than to always play the exact notes.

There is no good side to celebrity.

True compassion is about not bruising the other person’s self-respect.

If there is a God, he is not doing a good job of protecting the earth. He's kind of checked out.

Vows made in storms are forgotten in calm.

The best thing about animals is they don't talk much.