Guilt was never a rational thing; it distorts all the faculties of the human mind, it perverts them, it leaves a man no longer in the free use of his reason, it puts him into confusion.

You can never plan the future by the past.

Contempt is not a thing to be despised. It may be borne with a calm and equal mind, but no man, by lifting his head high, can pretend that he does not perceive the scorns that are poured down on him from above.

The cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judgment.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.

I do ride contend against the advantages of distrust. In the world we live in, it is but too necessary. Some of old called it the very sinews of discretion.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.