There is nothing more marvelous or madder than real life..

Once you are dancing with the devil, the prettiest capers won't help you..

There are men from whom nature or some peculiar destiny has removed the cover beneath which we hide our own madness. They are likethin-skinned insect….

I may be permitted, kind reader, to doubt whether you have ever been enclosed in a glass bottle, unless some vivid dream has teased you with such mag….

Human beings ought not to draw in their antennae at every ungentle touch, like supersensitive insects..

Let me ask you outright, gentle reader, if there have not been hours, indeed whole days and weeks of your life, during which all your usual activitie….

Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain..

Every year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last..

It is nearly always the most improbable things that really come to pass..

It is only in the morning that one should marry, read unfavourable reviews, make one's will, beat one's servants, and so forth..

Think of the wonderful circles in which our whole being moves and from which we cannot escape no matter how we try. The circler circles in these circ….

The human spirit is itself the most wonderful fairy tale that can possibly be. What a magnificent world lies enclosed within our bosoms! No solar orb….

How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it looking up to the clear blue sk….

The foot of the heavenly ladder, which we have got to mount in order to reach the higher regions, has to be fixed firmly in every-day life, so that e….

As the priest is characterized by his cassock, so the smoker by his pipe. The way in which he holds it, raises it to his lips, and knocks out the ash….

It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction..

Everything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more inconstant than opinion, ….

It is true that writers often owe their most inspired thoughts, their most extraordinary phrases, to their generous typesetters, who assist their fli….

Boys should not play with weapons more dangerous than they understand..

Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully?.

Why should not a writer be permitted to make use of the levers of fear, terror and horror because some feeble soul here and there finds it more than ….