Does the thoughtful man suppose that...the present experiment in civilization is the last world we will see?

Nothing can be meaner than the anxiety to live on, to live on anyhow and in any shape; a spirit with any honor is not willing to live except in its own way, and a spirit with any wisdom is not over-eager to live at all.

Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.

A friend's only gift is himself.

Knowledge is not eating, and we cannot expect to devour and possess what we mean. Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.

Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason.

We crave support in vanity, as we do in religion, and never forgive contradictions in that sphere.