“Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones just as the wind blows out a candle and fans a fire.”

“We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.”

“We always love those who admire us and we do not always love those whom we admire.”

“Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for being no longer in a position to give bad examples.”

“We give advice but we do not inspire conduct.”

“Few people know how to be old.”

“Tenacity bores failure.”

“Social media: a fine tool for radicalised idiots to find each other, a promised land for the pub bores and Champ Man anoraks of the nation.”

“He is an old bore even the grave yawns for him.”

“Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.”

“Doing nothing is the hardest torture that a person can put himself through. For he is always brought face to face with his own self, which demands that he gives account for the sun which he useless...”

“We just philosophize, complain of boredom, or drink vodka. It's so clear, you see, that if we're to begin living in the present, we must first of all redeem our past and then be done with it foreve...”