Philosophy cannot raise the commonalty up to her level: so, if she is to become popular, she must sink to theirs.

We look to our last sickness for repentance, unmindful that it is during a recovery men repent, not during a sickness.

Nature is mighty. Art is mighty. Artifice is weak. For nature is the work of a mightier power than man. Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power. Artifice is the work of mere man, in the imbecility of his mimic understanding.

Moral prejudices are the stopgaps of virtue; and, as is the case with other stopgaps, it is often more difficult to get either out or in through them than through any other part of the fence.

A youth's love is the more passionate; virgin love is the more idolatrous.

Much of this world's wisdom is still acquired by necromancy,--by consulting the oracular dead.

In the moment of our creation we receive the stamp of our individuality; and much of life is spent in rubbing off or defacing the impression.