Five thousand years have added no improvement to the hive of the bee, nor to the house of the beaver; but look at the habitations and the achievements of men!

Words indeed are but the signs and counters of knowledge, and their currency should be strictly regulated by the capital which they represent.

Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which is original, but whose truth alone prevents the reader from suspecting that it is so; and which effects that for knowledge which the lens effects for the sunbeam, when it condenses its brightness in order to increase its force.

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.

The cynic who twitted Aristippus by observing that the philosopher who could dine on herbs might despise the company of a king, was well replied to by Aristippus, when he remarked that the philosopher who could enjoy the company or a king might also despise a dinner of herbs.

Honor is the most capricious in her rewards. She feeds us with air, and often pulls down our house, to build our monument.

The most ridiculous of all animals is a proud priest; he cannot use his own tools without cutting his own fingers.