It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.

Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.

Happiness is that single and glorious thing which is the very light and sun of the whole animated universe; and where she is not it were better that nothing should be.

Doubt is the vestibule of faith.

No propagation or multiplication is more rapid that that of evil, unless it be checked; no growth more certain.

Ignorance lies at the bottom of all human knowledge, and the deeper we penetrate the nearer we arrive unto it. For what do we truly know, or what can we clearly affirm, of any one of those important things upon which all our reasonings must of necessity be built--time and space, life and death, matter and mind?

That which we acquire with the most difficulty we retain the longest; as those who have earned a fortune are usually more careful of it than those who have inherited one.