Alas! What is man? Whether he be deprived of that light which is from on high, of whether he discard it, a frail and trembling creature; standing on time, that bleak and narrow isthmus between two eternities, he sees nothing but impenetrable darkness on the one hand, and doubt, distrust, and conjecture, still more perplexing, on the other. Most gladly would he take an observation, as to whence he has come, or whither he is going; alas, he has not the means: his telescope is too dim, his compass too wavering, his plummet too short.

Bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret.

Unlike the sun, intellectual luminaries shine brightest after they set.

The science of legislation is like that of medicine in one respect: that it is far more easy to point out what will do harm than what will do good.

As the gout seems privileged to attack the bodies of the wealthy, so ennui seems to exert a similar prerogative over their minds.

It is better to have wisdom without learning than learning without wisdom.

He that studies only men will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body.