Men are the sport of circumstances when it seems circumstances are the sport of men.

Men are the sport of circumstances when it seems circumstances are the sport of men.

Wives in their husbands' absences grow subtler, And daughters sometimes run off with the butler.

Prolonged endurance tames the bold.

I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor.

If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.

Women hate everything which strips off the tinsel of sentiment, and they are right, or it would rob them of their weapons.

All farewells should be sudden, when forever.

Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen.

Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure; men love in haste but they detest at leisure.

I shall soon be six-and-twenty. Is there anything in the future that can possibly console us for not being always twenty-five?

Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away; A single laugh demolished the right arm Of his country.

We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.

Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.

He who is only just is cruel. Who on earth could live were all judged justly?

'Tis very certain the desire of life prolongs it.

The poor dog, in life the firmest friend. The first to welcome, foremost to defend.

It is very certain that the desire of life prolongs it.

The place is very well and quiet and the children only scream in a low voice.

The place is very well and quiet and the children only scream in a low voice.

Who loves, raves.

There are four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.

The 'good old times' - all times when old are good.

The 'good old times' - all times when old are good.

There is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?

What a strange thing man is; and what a stranger thing woman.

Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.

Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt In solitude, where we are least alone.

Romances I ne'er read like those I have seen.

Smiles form the channels of a future tear.

For what were all these country patriots born? To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn?

What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.

As long as I retain my feeling and my passion for Nature, I can partly soften or subdue my other passions and resist or endure those of others.

This is the patent age of new inventions for killing bodies, and for saving souls. All propagated with the best intentions.

There's naught, no doubt, so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion.

I have a great mind to believe in Christianity for the mere pleasure of fancying I may be damned.

Absence - that common cure of love.

If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad.

He who surpasses or subdues mankind, must look down on the hate of those below.

The beginning of atonement is the sense of its necessity.

Opinions are made to be changed - or how is truth to be got at?

Men think highly of those who rise rapidly in the world; whereas nothing rises quicker than dust, straw, and feathers.

Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.

I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.

I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.

Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.

The fact is that my wife if she had common sense would have more power over me than any other whatsoever, for my heart always alights upon the nearest perch.

But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.

Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship.

The best prophet of the future is the past.