Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.
No sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a fearful thing it is. Only the mad can be happy, and not many of those.
You can’t reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.
We take a natural interest in novelties, but it is against nature to take an interest in familiar things.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.
To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.
To believe yourself brave is to be brave; it is the one only essential thing.
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate: when he can’t afford it, and when he can.
There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.