“We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.”

“Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the bod...”

“An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.”

“Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form.”

“Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.”

“The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.”

“All our focus and strength must be concentrated on striving to fulfill the will of God for our lives”

“Nothing, save the hangman's noose, concentrates the mind like piles of cash.”

“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”