A person whose desires and impulses are his own - are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture - is said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has character.

Even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds

Eloquence is heard; poetry is overheard ... All poetry is of the nature of the soliloquy.

It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being.

Men might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.

Trade is a social act.

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so. The only chance is to treat not happiness, but some end external to it, as the purpose of life.