Deliberate virtue is never worth much: The virtue of feeling or habit is the thing.

I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account.

After all, is our idea of God anything more than personified incomprehensibility?

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.

One of the greatest creations of the human mind is the art of reviewing books without having read them.

There is something in our minds like sunshine and the weather, which is not under our control. When I write, the best things come to me from I know not where.

There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.