Will without intellect is the most vulgar and common thing in the world, possessed by every blockhead, who, in the gratification of his passions, shows the stuff of which he is made.

Reason is feminine in nature; it can only give after it has received.

The heavy armor becomes the light dress of childhood; the pain is brief, the joy unending.

For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible.

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.