We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.

That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.

The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.

An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living.

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.