“It has been said that love robs those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none.” — Diderot

“The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.” — George Bernard Shaw

Aphorisms from Norman Macdonald’s Maxims and Moral Reflections, 1827:

• By speaking contemptibly of our enemies, we disgrace our own hostility.
• We would be successful in most enterprises of life, were we to take that advice to ourselves which we give to others in similar circumstances.
• Severity of punishment deters minor crimes, but renders greater ones more certain and determined.
• Pride, like love, is sure to discover itself; because it can only derive value from the success with which it affects others.
• Were there no fools there would be no flatterers.
• The less we know of ourselves, the worse qualified we are to judge correctly of others.
• No end can be honorable that is dishonorably obtained.
• The better a man is known to himself, the more easily he is understood by others.
• There are two sorts of people that are never contented: they that do not know what they desire, and they that attempt impossibilities.
• The failure of many designs is owing to a confidence of success.
• A sure way, sometimes, to expose our virtue, is to endeavor to conceal it.
• A man is more deserving of success, that claims not adulation as his first conquest.
• We advise others better than ourselves.
• Most men have two principles, one practical, another professional.
• In cunning, our pride oftener dreads disappointment than our interest.

“Most men know how to take offence; but few know how to forgive — pride is always impatient; magnanimity, tolerant and pacific.”

“The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.” — Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“We have got to learn to think scientifically, not only about inanimate things, but about ourselves and one another. It is possible to do this.” — J.B.S. Haldane

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.” — Marcus Aurelius

Bulgarian proverbs:

• Hunger sees nothing but bread.
• In every village is the grave of Christ.
• The clean gets dirty more easily.
• The devil knows everything except where women sharpen their knives.
• Forests have eyes, meadows ears.
• God’s feet are of wool; his hands are of iron.
• One guest hates the other, and the host both.
• Do not lie for lack of news.
• The oversaintly saint is not pleasing even unto God.
• Man is ever self-forgiving.
• God does not shave — why should I?
• A long dark night — the year.
• Do not salt other people’s food.
• Become a sheep and you will see the wolf.
• The smaller saints will be the ruin of God.
• Where there is union a bullet can swim.
• The wife carries her husband on her face; the husband carries his wife on his linen.
• When a wool merchant speaks of sheep he means cloth.

And “God is not sinless. He created the world.”

“It is a well-known fact, too, that in the ancient world in which the entire population were non-smokers, crime of the most horrid type was rampant. It was a non-smoker who committed the first sin and brought death into the world and all our woe. Nero was a non-smoker. Lady Macbeth was a non-smoker. Decidedly, the record of the non-smokers leaves them little to be proud of.” — Robert Lynd