"No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks"

"It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?"

"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own"

"On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows, In every rill a sweet instruction flows"

"Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made"

"It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice"

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between"

"Women, can't live with them, can't live without them"

"The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom"

"Fraternity without absorption, union without fusion"

"A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect"