I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
Whether shall the Oxe goe, where he shall not labour?
Whoever acquires knowledge but does not practice it is as one who ploughs but does not sow.
Most reformers, like a pair of trousers on a windy clothesline, go through a vast deal of vehement motion, but stay in the same place.
Just as a flower which seems beautiful and has color but no perfume, so are the fruitless words of the man who speaks them but does them not.
Retribution is a dog chasing its tail.
And if my choice is to sit graciously in my best robes and accept the inevitable or to bail a sea with a bucket, give me the bucket.
••If you work with a jackhammer during an earthquake, stop, otherwise you are working for nothing.
I see no reason why I should tickle stones or waste time on polishing bronze.
About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
No man can add one dollar to his bank account by worrying.
I don't believe in uselessly fighting for nothing.
He who fights for a ne'er-do-well has nothing to show for it except a head covered in earth and grime.
Trying to reason with an addict was like trying to blow out a lightbulb.
