There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or strong, and the thing which pleases us. Whatever is formed according to this standard pleases us, be it house, song, discourse, verse, prose, woman, birds, rivers, trees, room, dress, and so on. Whatever is not made according to this standard displeases those who have good taste.

The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.

Making fun of philosophy is really philosophising.

The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.

Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward merit, for all will say that they are meritorious.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

The last thing that we find in making a book is to know what we must put first.