He can feel no little wants who is in pursuit of grandeur.

The greatest of characters, no doubt, would be he, who, free of all trifling accidental helps, could see objects through one grand immutable medium, always at hand, and proof against illusion and time, reflecting every object in its true shape and colour through all the fluctuation of things.

Desire is the uneasiness a man finds in himself upon the absence of anything whose present enjoyment carries the idea of delight with it.

All finery is a sign of littleness.

Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.

He who reforms himself has done more towards reforming the public than a crowd or noisy, impotent patriots.

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.