Turks have a dismissive phrase: he works like a clerk. I have turned this insult around: I am proud to say that I work like a clerk.
The end of living is the true enjoyment of it.
Only friendship which can stand occasional plain speaking is worth having.
Even in despair, man must laugh.
Only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them.
Nothing matters to a man who says nothing matters.
What is patriotism but love of the good things we ate in our childhood? I have said elsewhere that the loyalty to Uncle Sam is the loyalty to doughnuts and ham and sweet potatoes and the loyalty to the German Vaterland is the loyalty to Pfannkuchen and Christmas Stollen. As for international understanding, I feel that macaroni has done more for our appreciation of Italy than Mussolini. . . in food, as in death, we feel the essential brotherhood of mankind.
Good people protect people they love even if that means that pretending that everything is okay.
Coming closer to home, there is so much of jealousy, pride, arrogance, and carping criticism; fathers who rise in anger over small, inconsequential things and make wives weep and children fear.
Sickness is a hindrance to the body, but not to your ability to choose, unless that is your choice. Lameness is a hindrance to the leg, but not to your ability to choose. Say this to yourself with regard to everything that happens, then you will see such obstacles as hindrances to something else, but not to yourself.
Each man's hell is in a different place: mine is just up and behind my ruined face.