A man sees only what concerns him.... How much more, then, it requires different intentions of the eye and of the mind to attend to different departments of knowledge! How differently the poet and the naturalist look at objects!

Can we not do without the society of our gossip a little while, - have our own thoughts to cheer us?

Nature has left nothing to the mercy of man.

A sufficiently great and generous trust could never be abused.

There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.

I should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence of men's beginning to redeem themselves.

The greater number of men are merely corporals.