Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form. - André Maurois

Pascal said that if geometry stirred us emotionally as much as politics we would not be able to expound it so well.

What men call friendship is only social intercourse, an exchange of favours and good offices; it comes down to a commercial dealing in which self-esteem always expects to profit.

A friend loves you for your intelligence, a mistress for your charm, but your family's love is unreasoning; you were born into it and are of its flesh and blood. Nevertheless it can irritate you more than any group of people in the world.