Nothing can be meaner than the anxiety to live on, to live on anyhow and in any shape.

Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.

The diseases which destroy a man are no less natural than the instincts which preserve him.

The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism.

All living souls welcome whatsoever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible.

Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.

Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.