There is nothing by which men display their character so much as in what they consider ridiculous... Fools and sensible men are equally innocuous. It is in the half fools and the half wise that the great danger lies.

There are few who have at once thought and capacity for action. Thought expands, but lames; action animates, but narrows.

Know'st thou the land where the lemon-trees bloom, Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom, Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows, And the groves are of laurel and myrtle and rose!

Let him who believes in immortality enjoy his happiness in silence; he has no reason to give himself airs about it.

The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive.

The greater part of all the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims.