It is well-known what a middleman is: he is a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the other.

We can know nothing of humankind without knowing something of ourselves. Self-knowledge is the property of those people whose passions have their full play, but who ponder over their results.

Some will read only old books, as if there were no valuable truths to be discovered in modern publications: others will only read new books, as if some valuable truths are not among the old. Some will not read a book because they know the author: others . . . would also read the man.

Doubt is an element of criticism, and the tendency of criticism is necessarily skeptical.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

I have a great confidence in the revelations which holidays bring forth.

A practical man is a man who practices the errors of his forefathers.