The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at maturity. A man reaches the maturity of his reasoning powers and mental faculties hardly before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen.

To expect a man to retain everything that he has ever read is like expecting him to carry about in his body everything that he has ever eaten.

Newspapers are the second hand of history.

The principle of contradiction establishes merely the agreement of concepts, but does not itself produce concepts.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artificies as we do our own selves.

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination.