Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

We have to believe that everything has a cause, as the spider spins its web in order to catch flies. But it does this before it knows there are such things as flies.

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation, namely an imitation of its opposite.

If another Messiah was born he could hardly do so much good as the printing-press.

To make astute people believe one is what one is not is, in most cases, harder than actually to become what one wishes to appear.

I have remarked very clearly that I am often of one opinion when I am lying down and of another when I am standing up.

The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.