How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive o all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.
I think middle-age is the best time, if we can escape the fatty degeneration of the conscience which often sets in at about fifty.
There are two kinds of fools: One says, This is old therefore it is good. The other one says, This is new therefore it is better.
Consciousness is a phase of mental life which arises in connection with the formation of new habits. When habit is formed, consciousness only interferes to spoil our performance.
There are no rewards or punishments -- only consequences.
Every institution not only carries within it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival.
Let us remember, when we are inclined to be disheartened, that the private soldier is a poor judge of the fortunes of a great battle.
Literature flourishes best when it is half trade and half an art.
In dealing with Englishmen you can be sure of one thing only, that the logical solution will not be adopted.
Public opinion, a vulgar, impertinent, anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to the average person.
It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.
To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy.
A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can't sit on it.
Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.
Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due.