The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
When the master has come to do everything through the slave, the slave becomes his master, since he cannot live without him.
There may be some doubt as to who are the best people to have charge of children, but there can be no doubt that parents are the worst.
The great dramatist has something better to do than to amuse either himself or his audience. He has to interpret life.
The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine.
Never forget that if you leave your law to judges and your religion to bishops, you will presently find yourself without either law or religion.
My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.
If in the library of your house you do not have the works of the ancient Greek writers, then you live in a house with no light.
Fine art is the only teacher except torture.
It is the highest creatures who take the longest to mature, and are the most helpless during their immaturity.
Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.
Civilization is a disease produced by the practice of building societies with rotten material.
Those who admire modern civilization usually identify it with the steam engine and the electric telegraph.
The churches must learn humility as well as teach it.
Sister, you’re trying to keep me alive as an old curiosity, but I’m done, I’m finished, I’m going to die.
Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one’s heart; but death is a splendid thing -a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.
Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice.
Audacious ribald: your laughter will finish in hideous boredom before morning.
A nap, my friend, is a brief period of sleep which overtakes superannuated persons when they endeavor to entertain unwelcome visitors or to listen to scientific lectures.