They who love to inform themselves, are never idle. Though I have no business of consequence to take care of, I am nevertheless continually employed. I spend my life in examining things: I write down in the evening whatever I have remarked, what I have seen, and what I have heard in the day: every thing engages my attention, and every thing excites my wonder: I am like an infant, whose organs, as yet tender, are strongly affected by the slightest objects.

I should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.

There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

The coffee is prepared in such a way that it makes those who drink it witty: at least there is not a single soul who, on quitting the house, does not believe himself four times wittier that when he entered it.

Solemnity is the shield of idiots

Oh, how empty is praise when it reflects back to its origin!