Youth has the sun and the stars by which to determine his position on the sea of life; Age must sail by dead reckoning and knows not whither he is bound.
Happiness is lost by criticising it; sorrow by accepting it.
As Nature can not make us altogether wretched she resorts to the trick of contrast by making us sometimes almost happy.
When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come; in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.
When God saw how faulty was man He tried again and made woman. As to why He then stopped there are two opinions. One of them is woman's.
She hated him because he discovered that her lark was a crow. He hated her because she unlocked the cage of his beast.
'Who art thou?'
'Friendship.'
'I am Love; let us travel together.'
'Yes—for a day's journey; then thou arrivest at thy grave.'
'And thou?'
'I go as far as the grave of Advantage.'
Look far enough ahead and always thou shalt see the domes and spires of the City of Contentment.
You would say of that old man: 'He is bald and bent.' No; in the presence of Death he uncovers and bows.
If you saw Love pictured as clad in furs you would smile. Yet every year has its winter.
You can not disprove the Great Pyramid by showing the impossibility of putting the stones in place.
Men were singing the praises of Justice.
'Not so loud,' said an angel; 'if you wake her she will put you all to death.'
Age, with his eyes in the back of his head, thinks it wisdom to see the bogs through which he has floundered.
Wisdom is known only by contrasting it with folly; by shadow only we perceive that all visible objects are not flat. Yet Philanthropos would abolish evil!
One whose falsehoods no longer deceive has forfeited the right to speak truth.
Wisdom is a special knowledge in excess of all that is known.
To live is to believe. The most credulous of mortals is he who is persuaded of his incredulity.
In him who has never wronged another, revenge is a virtue.
That you can not serve God and Mammon is a poor excuse for not serving God.
A fool's tongue is not so noisy but the wise can hear his ear commanding them to silence.
If the Valley of Peace could be reached only by the path of love, it would be sparsely inhabited.
To the eye of failure success is an accident with a presumption of crime.
Wearing his eyes in his heart, the optimist falls over his own feet, and calls it Progress.
You can calculate your distance from Hell by the number of wayside roses. They are thickest at the hither end of the route.
The world was made a sphere in order that men should not push one another off, but the landowner smiles when he thinks of the sea.
