Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them.

God creates the animals, man creates himself.

Many intelligent people, when about to write . . . , force on their minds a certain notion about style, just as they screw up their faces when they sit for their portraits.

Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.

When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?

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

How did mankind ever come by the idea of liberty? What a grand thought it was!