If it be true that men of strong imaginations are usually dogmatists--and I am inclined to think it is so--it ought to follow that men of weak imaginations are the reverse; in which case we should have some compensation for stupidity. But it unfortunately happens that no dogmatist is more obstinate or less open to conviction than a fool.

The poorest man would not part with health for money, but the richest would gladly part with all their money for health.

He that can please nobody is not so much to be pitied as he that nobody can please.

Genius in one grand particular is like life. We know nothing of either but by their effects.

If martyrdom is now on the decline, it is not because martyrs are less zealous, but because martyr-mongers are more wise. The light of intellect has put out the fire of persecution, as other fires are observed to smoulder before the light of the same.

The policy that can strike only while the iron is hot will be overcome by that perseverance, which ... can make that iron hot by striking and he that can only rule the storm must yield to him who can both raise and rule it.

When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good.