It is not for man to follow the trail of truth too far, since by so doing he entirely loses the directing compass of his mind.

The grand points in human nature are the same to-day they were a thousand years ago. The only variability in them is in expression, not in feature.

The fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all hands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of him; but when you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet long, it takes away your appetite.

He knows himself, and all that's in him, who knows adversity.

I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb.

A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true.

In armies, navies, cities, or families, in nature herself, nothing more relaxes good order than misery.