To prevent illness in later life, you should never have been born at all.
The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who have not got it.
Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open.
Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it…