“The most efficient way of rendering the poor harmless is to teach them to want to imitate the rich.”

“A good liar knows that the most efficient lie is always a truth that has had a key piece removed from it.”

“Envy is the religion of the mediocre. It comforts them, it soothes their worries, and finally it rots their souls, allowing them to justify their meanness and their greed until they believe these to be virtues. Such people are convinced that the doors of heaven will be opened only to poor wretches like themselves who go through life without leaving any trace but their threadbare attempts to belittle others and to exclude - and destroy if possible - those who, by the simple fact of their existence, show up their own poorness of spirit, mind, and guts. Blessed be the one at whom the fools bark, because his soul will never belong to them.”

“It was a well-known fact that the richness of buttery foods led to the moral ruin and confusion of the intellect.”

“Those were the words she wanted to hear and she finally surrendered to the temptation of believing them.”

“Whether we realise it or not, most of us define ourselves by opposing rather than by favouring something or someone. To put it another way, it is easier to react than to act.”

“Why is it that the less one has to say the more one says it in the most pompous and pedantic way possible? Corelli asked. 'Is it to fool the world or just to fool themselves?”