I love idleness. I love to busy myself about trifles, to begin a hundred things and not finish one of them, to come and go as my fancy bids me, to change my plan every moment, to follow a fly in all its circlings, to try and uproot a rock to see what is underneath, eagerly to begin a ten-years' task to give it up after ten minutes: in short, to fritter away the whole day inconsequentially and incoherently, and to follow nothing but the whim of the moment.

All through life a man has need of a counsellor and guide.

The English people think they are free; they are greatly deceived; they are free only during the election of members of Parliament.

Generally we obtain very surely and very speedily what we are not too anxious to obtain.

Although modesty is natural to man, it is not natural to children. Modesty only begins with the knowledge of evil.

If there wasn't a God we would have to invent one to keep people sane.

Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.