I do not know where to find in any literature, whether ancient or modern, any adequate account of that Nature with which I am acquainted.

For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?

It is not that we love to be alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar, the company grows thinner and thinner until there is none at all. …We are not the less to aim at the summits though the multitude does not ascend them.

Direct your eye inward, and you'll find / A thousand regions in your mind / Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be / Expert in home-cosmography

My friend is one... who take me for what I am.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance.