25 quotes
We are so bound together that no man can labor for himself alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf helps to mold the Universe.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
I attribute the quarrelsome nature of the Middle Ages young men entirely to the want of the soothing weed.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
A shy man's lot is not a happy one. The men dislike him, the women despise him, and he dislikes and despises himself. Use brings him no relief, and there is no cure for him except time.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
We drink one another's health and spoil our own.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
All is vanity and everybody's vain. Women are terribly vain. So are men — more so, if possible.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
Tears are as sweet as laughter to some natures.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
If you would taste love, drink of the pure stream that youth pours out at your feet. Do not wait till it has become a muddy river before you stoop to catch its waves.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch each other, and find sympathy. It is in our follies that we are one.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
A man rarely carries his shyness past the hobbledehoy period. Even if his own inward strength does not throw it off, the rubbings of the world generally smooth it down.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
Swearing relieves the feelings—that is what swearing does. I explained this to my aunt on one occasion, but it didn't answer with her. She said I had no business to have such feelings.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
A poor gasping, blushing creature, with trembling knees and twitching hands, is a painful sight to every one, and if it cannot cure itself, the sooner it goes and hangs itself the better.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
It is easy enough to say that poverty is no crime. No; if it were men wouldn't be ashamed of it. It is a blunder, though, and is punished as such. A poor man is despised the whole world over.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
We do not hate, nor grieve, nor joy, nor despair in our thirties like we did in our teens. Disappointment does not suggest suicide, and we quaff success without intoxication.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
They say — people who ought to be ashamed of themselves do — that the consciousness of being well dressed imparts a blissfulness to the human heart that religion is powerless to bestow. I am afraid these cynical persons are sometimes correct.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
Love is like the measles; we all have to go through it. Also like the measles, we take it only once...No, we never sicken with love twice. Cupid spends no second arrow on the same heart.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
A woman never thoroughly cares for her lover until he has ceased to care for her; and it is not until you have snapped your fingers in Fortune's face and turned on your heel that she begins to smile upon you.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch one another and find sympathy. We differ widely enough in our nobler qualities. It is in our follies that we are at one.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
No, there is nothing at all funny in poverty—to the poor. It is hell upon earth to a sensitive man; and many a brave gentleman who would have faced the labors of Hercules has had his heart broken by its petty miseries.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one. Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
Love is too pure a light to burn long among the noisome gases that we breathe, but before it is choked out we may use it as a torch to ignite the cozy fire of affection.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)