That extremes beget extremes is an apothegm built on the most profound observation of the human mind.

A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.

Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears.

Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods.

I'm aiming by the time I'm fifty to stop being an adolescent.

Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues.

No men deserve the title of infidels so little as those to whom it has been usually applied; let any of those who renounce Christianity, write fairly down in a book all the absurdities that they believe instead of it, and they will find that it requires more faith to reject Christianity than to embrace it.