The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.

Many books owe their success to the good memories of their authors and the bad memories of their readers.

The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue.

Men of strong minds and who think for themselves, should not be discouraged on finding occasionally that some of their best ideas have been anticipated by former writers; they will neither anathematize others nor despair themselves. They will rather go on discovering things before discovered, until they are rewarded with a land hitherto unknown, an empire indisputably their own, both right of conquest and of discovery.

By paying our other debts, we are equal with all mankind; but in refusing to pay a debt of revenge, we are superior.

Pain may be said to follow pleasure as its shadow.

Physicians must discover the weaknesses of the human mind, and even condescend to humor them, or they will never be called in to cure the infirmities of the body.