A best-seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent.

All my life, as down an abyss without a bottom. I have been pouring van loads of information into that vacancy of oblivion I call my mind.

A slight touch of friendly malice and amusement towards those we love keeps our affections for them from turning flat.

Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.

How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there any danger of their coming true.

If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give your style.

It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.

Most people sell their souls and live with a good conscience on the proceeds.

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of the blood.

Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there is no God.

To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave the way the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and stay sober.

Uncultivated minds are not full of wild flowers, like uncultivated fields. Villainous weeds grow in them, and they are full of toads.

We need two kinds of acquaintances, one to complain to, while to the others we boast.

What is more enchanting than the voices of young people when you can't hear what they say?