Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with the part of another; people are friends in spots.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

In this world we must either institute conventional forms of expression or else pretend that we have nothing to express; the choice lies between a mask and a figleaf.

The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous in old age.

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.

Unmitigated seriousness is always out of place in human affairs.