Liberty begets anarchy, anarchy leads to despotism, and despotism brings about liberty once again. Millions of human beings have perished without being able to make any of these systems triumph.

We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are.

A year at the breast is quite enough; children who are suckled longer are said to grow stupid, and I am all for popular sayings.

The wounds of self-love turn incurable when the oxide of self-love gets into them.

The weakest being on earth can accomplish feats of strength. The frailest urchin will ring every doorbell on the street in arctic weather or hoist himself aloft to inscribe his name on a virgin monument.

Love, according to our contemporary poets, is a privilege which two beings confer upon one another, whereby they may mutually cause one another much sorrow over absolutely nothing.

An ugly woman, married to King Henry VIII, would have defied the axe and daunted her husband's infidelities.