There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.

“Conscience makes egotists of us all.” 

I do not wish more external goods, — neither possessions, nor honors, nor powers, nor persons. The gain is apparent; the tax is certain.

“The only horrible thing in the world is ennui.” 

“As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.” 

“I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about it's use. It is hitting below the intellect.” 

“She knew nothing but she had everything he had lost.” 

“It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.” 

“Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity.” 

I no longer wish to meet a good I do not earn, for example, to find a pot of buried gold, knowing that it brings with it new burdens.

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their aint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.

“Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to someone who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer's day.” 

“Every impulse we strangle will only poison us.” 

“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?” 

“Everything in moderation, including moderation.” 

Life is a journey, not a destination

“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.” 

The best part of health is fine disposition. It is more essential than talent, even in the works of talent.

What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour?

We ask for long life, but ’tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical

Men are better than their theology.

“Crying is for plain women. Pretty women go shopping.”