Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence. Civilization is the subordination of the latter to the former.
I don’t like to meddle in my private affairs.
How powerful social mores are! Only a spider’s web lies across the volcano, yet it refrains from erupting.
Most people only do what they are asked to do; success comes to those who do a little more.
Curses on the law! Most of my fellow citizens are the sorry consequences of uncommitted abortions.
To be perfect, one lacks only a defect.
Love thy neighbor as thyself. Because each of us is his own neighbor.
You’d be surprised how hard it can often be to translate an action into an idea.
The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test.
The mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span.
Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.
I and life: The case was settled chivalrously. The opponents parted without having made up.
Feminine passion is to masculine as an epic is to an epigram.
Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.
Jealousy is a dog’s bark which attracts thieves.
Virginity is the ideal of those who want to deflower.
Morality is a venereal disease. Its primary stage is called virtue; its secondary stage, boredom; its tertiary stage, syphilis.
Anesthesia: wounds without pain. Neurasthenia: pain without wounds.
Ingratitude is often disproportionate to the benefaction received.
Social reform is the desperate decision to remove corns from a person suffering from cancer.