There is not a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.
The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.
Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.
A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.
If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are; we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise.
To be a great man it is necessary to know how to profit by the whole of our good fortune.
Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.
I've had loss in my life, and I like to think my mother's energy lives on in some faintly Buddhist way. I do find some comfort there.
and if i if i ever let love go because the hatred and the whisperings become a phantom dictate i o- bey in lieu of impulse and realities (the blossoming flamingos of my wild mimosa trees) then let love freeze me out. (from i must become a menace to my enemies)
François: Do you know what kind of a bomb it was? Clouseau: Yes, the exploding kind.
Let echo, too, perform her part, Prolonging every note with art; And in a low expiring strain, Play all the comfort o'er again.