Books are like imprisoned souls 

till someone takes them down from a shelf 

and frees them.

Life is like music; 

it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, 

not by rule.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

All animals, 

except man, 

know that the principal business of life 

is to enjoy it.

It is our less conscious thoughts 

and our less conscious actions 

which mainly mould our lives 

and the lives of those 

who spring from us.

He that complies against his will 

is of his own opinion still.

Life is not an exact science, 

it is an art.

To himself everyone is immortal; 

he may know that he is going to die, 

but he can never know that he is dead.

Human life 

is as evanescent 

as the morning dew 

or a flash of lightning.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions 

from insufficient premises.

Every man's work, 

whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, 

is always a portrait of himself.