When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.

After I went to bed I had a curious fancy as to dreams. In sleep the doors of the mind are shut, and thoughts come jumping in at the windows. They tumble headlong, and therefore are so disorderly and strange. Sometimes they are stout and light on their feet, and then they are rational dreams.

I make it a kind of pious rule to go to every funeral to which I am invited, both as I wish to pay a proper respect to the dead, unless their characters have been bad, and as I would wish to have the funeral of my own near relations or of myself well attended.

If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.

Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials.

A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.

We must take our friends as they are.