Marriage: A word which should be pronounced "mirage".

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

Pervading all nature we may see at work a stern discipline , which is a little cruel that it may be very kind.

Civilization is a progress from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity toward a definite, coherent heterogeneity.

A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it.

Rightness expresses of actions, what straightness does of lines; and there can no more be two kinds of right action than there can be two kinds of straight lines.

Those whose hardships are set forth in pamphlets and proclaimed in sermons and speeches which echo throughout society, are assumed to be all worthy souls, grievously wronged; and none of them are thought of as bearing the penalties of their misdeeds.