A private conversation to which you are a witness to suggests that the person talking doesn’t care if you overhear him, and so would probably welcome your input if it were offered.

You can be told all the secrets of the world, but how gullible do you wish to be?

Sometimes, you cannot see what is serious for lack of knowing what to do about it.

Some people are together for one reason, others for another, but what is quite clear is that they’re all together for their own reasons.

It’s an astounding fact probably least known to all those who it best applies to: Those who reject the rejected will only attract more rejects.

Old friends are something which, once you lose them, you never see again.

It is not an infrequent event to see a complete fool in the world, and some of them, if nothing else, can also be very well educated.

A polite joke is a contradiction in terms, or, at least, to its “object” it is, to say nothing of its subject!

Knowledge to the fool opens doors for him; which, basically, is why to him all doors are shut tight.

One constant about being “out on a limb” is that it often seems more appropriate to “jump for it” rather than worm yourself back to safety.

It’s an old conundrum, and often quite amusing: If you need any help in this life, then they’ll hand you “the monkey’s paw”.

Advice from morons is especially pernicious, and educated morons’ especially so. And as for the specialist’s, well, moronic isn’t the correct word for it.

What is the first thing normal people will do about a “madman”? They reject him out of hand, and then harbour an obscene opinion over him for good measure.

In the end a man inevitably has to live with the cards he has dealt himself on the table of life. But, still, he sure doesn’t have to like it.

When you ask a person to do some work you must pay him for it (or at least promise to pay him for it) but that doesn’t mean you must leave a tip.

How often laziness could be swiftly overcome if we were not so intent on doing what we find most comfortable.

A man can get so used to failure that he eventually sits down and does nothing… Then it can be said that he has truly reached his destination.

Pinch: To ingratiate oneself at the expense of another fellow, or, rather (and although one might not know it) to do so at one’s own.

One thing is certain of failure: the deeper the failure entrenches himself in its mire the less appealing he looks to others who have avoided it.

What is the first prerequisite for being a romantic? Well, in all probability, the capacity to die young while eating one’s words for lunch.

The only problem with a good witch-hunt is that not everybody who’s interested in natural justice can get involved in it.

With all this sanctimonious codswallop these evangelists come up with it’s a wonder they don’t go and join the venerable society of sanctimonious bull shiners, or is that an oxymoron of some kind?

Balancing sanity on a pinhead is something best left for philosophers to ponder over, if, indeed they have the social skills to do it.

One should try not to irritate those in authority too much but not at the cost of being enslaved to it, it would be too much like a marriage.

It’s remarkable how sweet and juicy a good bit of well-timed betrayal feels, especially when it’s totally uncalled for. As an act of personal growth, it can be thoroughly recommended to all normally minded persons.

Greed is an essential ingredient for ambition; or, at least, it whets the appetite for it.

“Friends” have their own agendas. Which roughly means, if you want to be a friend, you should have one too.

Of course, where people are concerned, Niccolò Machiavelli said it all; however, not all that many people know what he was on about.

Some men can just talk and talk and talk, and still say nothing, and during social intercourse many frequently do as a matter of policy.

Sometimes one finds that it is too late to learn something…and that it was a long time coming.

Play is something done in all seriousness only if you already know that those whom you play with know this already, and play the game.

It is not necessary to thank anybody for nothing it’s when he wants to take it back without payment that you have to complain to someone.

There is a general consensus among intellectuals that their ignorance is better than a fool’s knowledge. Happily, though, they can never prove it.

One should be wary of those who come to you at a bad time and make it worse; which is a good reason to ignore most people.

One should be careful of those who run along the street; it is not that they are in a hurry, which is excusable, but that they have nothing better to do than to run to where they are going, and so are already too late to arrive in a more appropriate manner.

It is not always necessary to know where you are, exactly, but it is probably vital to know you’re on the same planet as everybody else, if not on the same plane of existence.

It is a truth that generally remains unrecognised by those who do not have it that advantage stays with those who work for it; anybody else can generally go and do the washing up.

As those in the know know they do not know, what then do those who do not know know, nothing? But, at least, they would know this.

I would not say that great teachers are not good at teaching what they know, only that they definitely do not like their teachings being rejected by those who don’t.

Failure is that personal attribute which enables complete strangers to comment upon the failures and short fallings endemic in the neglect or omission of expected or required action within a failure’s entirely wasted life.

One of life’s greatest fallacies is that when people see a man drowning they’re likely to throw him a lifebelt. They’re more likely to throw him an anchor.

The world wouldn’t be a fair place to live without being able to blame someone or other for one’s troubles, so one would probably deserve all the blame one gets.

Pay no mind to what another man thinks of you, as he has never walked in your shoes and if he hadn’t any of his own he would probably pinch yours as well into the bargain.

As the bonds that bind us tend to grow tighter the more we struggle against them, so why struggle against them, why not go with the flow instead?

What should be watched for is not what men do, but why they do it; and, if they need emulating, well, they’re probably dodgy anyway.

Nobody should want to hang about with somebody who has no interest in what he does or how he reacts, and vice versa also, even though they’re clearly well-suited to one another.

For every person who ever wanted something more, there is another person who went out and got it. This may not be true, but there is only one way to prove it.

Consider your own attitude towards the mentally ill or psychologically deformed, and that is the attitude most of society would have towards you if you became so, which, after all, really isn’t very nice but is probably quite justified.

Men should be prepared to hang their principles from the flagpoles (to blow in the wind), it’s the only way to be certain that they don’t cause too much of a flap.

If he likes to do it anybody who disagrees with people has a head start in a friendly conversation.

It’s impossible to say something foolish or inane without lacking the intelligence to fully understand its true meaning, or at least not until after it’s been said.

Someone who is being criticised generally gets exactly what he deserves: free advice. Attack couched as criticism, though, is the abomination of abominations, but it can still prove quite entertaining.

Arrogance is an indication that one doesn’t know what one is doing; which in turn is a kind of behaviour that is usually closely followed by one’s comeuppance.

Sometimes you’ve got to know when to punch someone in the jaw; and if you’re going to do that then you had better know how to punch someone in the jaw properly: for good and all.

For every freedom earned there’s a smashed hope that goes along with it, just to provide supporting evidence for a general lack of happiness in the world.

Fair weather friends: acquaintances who have got too close to the truth and are blow away by it.