The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.
The popular view that a child forgets easily is not an accurate one. Many people go right through life in the grip of an idea which has been impressed on them in very tender years.
The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.
The men who act without thinking, and the men who both think and act, are the ones who mould the world. The man who thinks and does not act never moulds the world.
The future belongs to the dandy. It is the exquisites who are going to rule.
The confidence one has in oneself chiefly creates the confidence one inspires in others.[La confiance que l’on a en soi fait naître la plus grande partie de celle que l’on a aux autres.]
Such is the Force of Happiness – The Least – can lift a Ton Assisted by its stimulus –
Self-confidence adds more to conversation than wit.[La confiance fournit plus à la conversation que l’esprit.]
Rumour is a pipe blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures and of so easy and so plain a stop that the blunt monster with uncounted heads, the still-discordant wavering multitude, can play upon it.
Only that which does not teach, which does not cry out, which does not persuade, which does not condescend, which does not explain, is irresistible.
O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies In the small orb of one particular tear!
Nothing is so contagious as an example, we never commit good or bad acts without their propagating themselves.[Rien n’est si contagieux que l’exemple, et nous ne faisons jamais de grands biens ni de grands maux qui n’en produisent de semblables.]
