He who only tastes his error will long dwell with it, will take delight in it as in a singular felicity; while he who drains it to the dregs will, if he be not crazy, find it to be what it is.

In society every man is taken for what he gives himself out to be; but he must give himself out to be something. Better to be slightly disagreeable than altogether insignificant.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage.

I don't know a greater advantage, than to appreciate the worth of an enemy.

If everyone sweeps before his own front door, then the street is clean.

It is quite beyond me how anyone can believe God speaks to us in books and stories. If the world does not directly reveal to us our relationship to it, if our hearts fail to tell us what we owe ourselves and others, we shall assuredly not learn it from books, which are at best designed but to give names to our errors.