Poems List

The secret of all success is to know how to deny yourself. Prove that you can control yourself, and you are an educated man; and without this all other education is good for nothing.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

Faith is, above all, openess; an act of trust in the unknown.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Immortality -- a fate worse than death.

Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

Faith is not the knowledge of what the mystery of the universe is, but the conviction that there is a mystery, and that it is greater than us.

Their understanding

If someone tells you that the fully armored man of the Middle Ages was so encumbered by his armor that he could not rise if he fell, you may well ask yourself, first, if it is reasonable to assume that professional soldiers would go on wearing armor that kept them from fighting and second, if this theory is in line with what you know of the heavily armored men of your personal acquaintance.

That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.

I guess you go too far when pianos try to be guitars.

Oh, what tangled webs we weave, When we first practice to deceive.

It is by no means self-evident that human beings are most real when most violently excited; violent physical passions do not in themselves differentiate men from each other, but rather tend to reduce them to the same state.

Freedom hath a thousand charms to show,

If there is no gardener there is no garden.

Be not too hasty either with praise or blame; speak always as though you were giving evidence before the judgement-seat of the Gods.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

There is no greater joy than of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.

Few men desire liberty: The majority are satisfied with a just master.

Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.

Pride is a spiritual Cancer: It eats up the very possibilty of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

Some forms of reality are so horrible we refuse to face them, unless we are trapped into it by comedy. To label any subject unsuitable for comedy is to admit defeat.