Those that are most slow in making a promise are the most faithful in the performance of it.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

It is easier to conquer than to administer. With enough leverage, a finger could overturn the world; but to support the world, one must have the shoulders of Hercules.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections as well as bodies, are in a perpetual flux.

There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character.

Chemistry... is like the maid occupied with daily civilisation; she is busy with fertilisers, medicines, glass, insecticides ... for she dispenses the recipes.