That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god.

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.

Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.

People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons.

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear.

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.

You have to passionately want it to possess it.

Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.

"Who's Heinz and what's an accordion?"

I'm not a film-school guy. I was a high-school dropout. I was on a nuclear submarine. I was an electrician. I was a house painter. So if you get in my face, I'm going to fight you.

A pedestrian is a man in danger of his life. A walker is a man in possession of his soul.

Create and preserve the image of your choice.

I went to the Avengers: Age of Ultron and I'm like, "These guys are Olympians now." There's no place for a Walter Matthau in a movie anymore.

Really good mountain bikers are lousy judges of trail difficulty. We haven't a clue, we just ride.

The most heartbreaking thing of all is how we cheat ourselves of the present moment.