People who never have any time on their hands are those who do the least.

Good taste is either that which agrees with my taste or that which subjects itself to the rule of reason. From this we can see how useful it is to employ reason in seeking out the laws of taste.

A good part of the fame of most celebrated men is due to the shortsightedness of their admirers

He was then in his fifty-fourth year, when even in the case of poets reason and passion begin to discuss a peace treaty and usually conclude it not very long afterwards.

Of all the inventions of man I doubt whether any was more easily accomplished than that of a Heaven.

Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war?

Most men of education are more superstitious than they admit - nay, than they think.