Each reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy his similes.

You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind.

Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.

The sort of morality which the priests inculcate is a very subtle policy, far finer than the politicians', and the world is very successfully ruled by them as the policemen.

Unless the human race perspire more than I do, there is no occasion to live by the sweat of their brow. If men cannot get on without money (the smallest amount will suffice), the truest method of earning it is by working as a laborer at one dollar per day. You are least dependent so; I speak as an expert, having used several kinds of labor.

If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative. It isthe virtue of the married especially. All lusts or base pleasures must give place to loftier delights. They who meet as superior beings cannot perform the deeds of inferior ones.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.