Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

Age and Aging

The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.

Books and Reading

Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can't expect an angel to look out.

Bores and Boredom

People of Wealth and the so called upper class suffer the most from boredom.

Character

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character.

Death and Dying

Each day is a little life; every waking and rising a little birth; every fresh morning a little youth; every going to rest and sleep a little dearth.

Education

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

Faces

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.

Fate

It's the niceties that make the difference fate gives us the hand, and we play the cards.

Greatness

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Hypocrisy

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

Intelligence and Intellectuals

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

Language

The word of man is the most durable of all material.

Marriage

To marry is to halve your rights and double your duties.

Opinions

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

Repetition

There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.

Selfishness

If we were not all so excessively interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

Stupidity

The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

Time and Time Management

Time is that in which all things pass away.

Will and Will Power

Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.

Words

A word too much always defeats its purpose.