If all seconds were as averse to duels as their principals, very little blood would be shed in that way.

Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.

The hand that unnerved Belshazzar derived its most horrifying influence from the want of a body, and death itself is not formidable in what we do know of it, but in what we do not.

Speaking generally, no man appears great to his contemporaries, for the same reason that no man is great to his servants--both know too much of him.

The seat of perfect contentment is in the head; for every individual is thoroughly satisfied with his own proportion of brains.

It is astonishing how much more people are interested in lengthening life than improving it.

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.