A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at read more

A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at home.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

It's good to shut up sometimes.

It's good to shut up sometimes.

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

If the secret sorrows of everyone could be read on their forehead, how many who now cause envy would suddenly read more

If the secret sorrows of everyone could be read on their forehead, how many who now cause envy would suddenly become the objects of pity.

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, read more

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo read more

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

The shy man does have some slight revenge upon society for the torture it inflicts upon him. He is able, read more

The shy man does have some slight revenge upon society for the torture it inflicts upon him. He is able, to a certain extent, to communicate his misery. He frightens other people as much as they frighten him. He acts like a damper upon the whole room, and the most jovial spirits become, in his presence, depressed and nervous.

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the read more

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky.