There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

Reality is a sliding door.

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.

If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure – the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.

He knows my limitations and where I’m a good wife and a good mom.

When people say ‚marriage‘ to me… It’s always a means to an end. Everyone’s so in a rush to define the relationship.

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.

A lot of times, people make other people responsible for their joy: ‚You’re not making me happy, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that.‘

In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called ‚walking.‘

The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.

I think the perception of peace is what distracts most people from really having it.

You say that you are my judge; I do not know if you are; but take good heed not to judge me ill, because you would put yourself in great peril.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

All diseases run into one, old age.

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

Marriage is an adventure, like going to war.

Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.

The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.

Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?

The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

Most people would rather give than get affection.

My father probably thought the capital of the world was wherever he was at the time. It couldn’t possibly be anyplace else. Where he and his wife were in their own home, that, for them, was the capital of the world.

A lot of good love can happen in ten years.

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.

To be loved is very demoralizing.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

They do not love that do not show their love.

Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.

We do not see people as they are, but as they appear to us. And these appearances are usually misleading.

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

Power over a man’s subsistence is power over his will.

The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine.

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

It’s a mystery. That’s the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it’s mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

If I held you any closer I would be on the other side of you.

My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people’s kids than I did my own.

Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.

For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it.

A bad man is the sort who weeps every time he speaks of a good woman.