"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way,” Mark Twain. (Perhaps the man is Obama and the cat's name is Afghanistan.)
 

 

“Nothing prevents us from being natural so much as the desire to appear so.”

La Rochefoucauld, the Gold Standard of epigrammists


“There are ways of curing madness, but none of righting the wrong-headed.”

                                                   La Rochefoucauld


“It is not possible to enumerate all the kinds of vanity.”

                                                  La Rochefoucauld


“Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.”

Samuel Johnson


“Love is blind, but marriage restores its sight.”

                                      Lichtenberg


“It is better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out than to have them outside the tent pissing in.”

                             Lyndon Johnson


“The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter. It’s the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”

                                                      Mark Twain


“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

Mark Twain


“All of us lie in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Oscar Wilde


And from my native city, some good advice.


“First, stick with the same drink you started with. By that I mean that if you started the evening drinking champagne, beer and frozen daquiris, stick with champagne, beer and frozen daquiris the rest of the evening....”

                                         Mike Royko on avoiding hangovers


“Never play cards with a man called Doc, and never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

                                 Nelson Algren


“An honest man is always a child.”

                                Martial


“Those who the gods love grow young.”

                                  Oscar Wilde


“Do not let yourself be deluded by anyone; this is all I teach.”

Rinzai


“I’ve created a good environment. All I have to do is think and not be influenced by others.”

                        Warren Buffett


Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.

                            Oscar Wilde


One should always be a little improbable.

                                       Oscar Wilde

 

And a few proverbs:

 

“When the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.”
                                                     Italian saying

“Eventually you have to take the stone out of your shoe.”
                        Old saying

“Pissing in your pants will only keep you warm for so long.”
                        Danish saying