The wisdom of providence is as much revealed in the rarity of genius, as in the circumstance that not everyone is deaf or blind.

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.

The fruits of philosophy are the important thing, not the philosophy itself. When we ask the time, we don't want to know how watches are made.

It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard.

A donkey appears to me like a horse translated into Dutch.

We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.

Love is blind, but marriage restores its sight.