The principle of asceticism never was, nor ever can be, consistently pursued by any living creature. Let but one tenth part of the inhabitants of the earth pursue it consistently, and in a day's time they will have turned it into a Hell.

Publicity is the very soul of justice. It is the keenest spur to exertion, and the surest of all guards against improbity.

As to the evil which results from censorship, it is impossible to measure it, because it is impossible to tell where it ends.

Pleasure is in itself a good; nay, even setting aside immunity from pain, the only good.

The turn of a sentence has decided the fate of many a friendship, and, for aught that we know, the fate of many a kingdom.

Bodies are real entities. Surfaces and lines are but fictitious entities. A surface without depth, a line without thickness, was never seen by any man; no; nor can any conception be seriously formed of its existence.

The request of industry to government is as modest as that of Diogenes to Alexander: Get out of my light.