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

It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big.

What a man can do and suffer is unknown to himself till some occasion presents itself which draws out the hidden power. Just as one sees not in the water of an unruffled pond the fury and roar with which it can dash down a steep rock without injury to itself, or how high it is capable of rising; or as little as one can suspect the latent heat in ice-cold water.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection.

There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the altar of monogamy?

Men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man IS contributes more to his happiness than what he HAS.