There is nothing sweeter than to be sympathized with.

It is one thing to lack a heart and another to possess eyes and a just imagination.

The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine.... If we dramatize its life and conceive its spirit, we are filled with wonder, terror and amusement, so magnificent is the spirit.

The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour.

Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them.

A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted.

People are usually more firmly convinced that their opinions are precious than that they are true.