Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.

What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown.