Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.

Thirstily he set it to his lips, and as its cool refreshment began to soothe his throat, he thanked Heaven that in a world of much evil there was still so good a thing as ale.

Regret of neglected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit.

I am very poor - for a know nothing, understand nothing. It is not a calamitous condition until it is realized.

...it is human nature, I suppose, to be futile and ridiculous.

Truth is so often disconcerting.

To do what you imply would require nothing short of divine intervention. You must change man, not systems.

Only he who is without anything is without enemies.

There remained the sea, which is free to all, and particularly alluring to those who feel themselves at war with humanity.

He was suffering from the loss of an illusion.

He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.

The most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom among us is the compact majority. Yes, the damned, compact, liberal majority...

The more we love our friends the less we flatter them it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.

Oh call it by some better name, For friendship sounds too cold.

It's a fact of life that positive reasons don't always get people to vote. You need some negative reasons.

It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.

I'm the kind of cat that can finish three songs in a day. Two or three songs in a day. If my voice is up to it and I feel up to it, I can finish two or three songs in a day.

Novels as dull as dishwater, with the grease of random sentiments floating on top.

I do not traditionally speak ill of women, but your governess is a cabbagehead