The life of every individual is really always a tragedy, but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy.

I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.

There are three stages in the revelation of truth. The first is to be ridiculed, the second is to be resisted and the third is to be considered self-evident.

Every human perfection is linked to an error which it threatens to turn into

If people insist that honor is dearer than life itself, what they really mean is that existence and well-being are as nothing compared with other people's opinions. Of course, this may be only an exaggerated way of stating the prosaic truth that reputation, that is, the opinion others have of us, is indispensable if we are to make any progress in the world.

The fundament upon which all our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable.

Where there is no love, a person's faithfulness to the marriage bond is probably against nature.