I never dreamed of any enormity greater than I have committed. I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.

I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.

I see less difference between a city and a swamp than formerly.

Men talk of freedom! How many are free to think? Free from fear, from perturbation, from prejudice? Nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand are perfect slaves.

Can there be any greater reproach than an idle learning? Learn to split wood, at least.

No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow.

At death our friends and relatives either draw nearer to us and are found out, or depart farther from us and are forgotten. Friends are as often brought nearer together as separated by death.