We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live.

Genuine witticisms surprise those who say them as much as those who listen to them; they arise in us in spite of us, or, at least, without our participation,--like everything inspired.

It is easier to be mistaken about the true than the beautiful.

I would fain coin wisdom,—mould it, I mean, into maxims, proverbs, sentences, that can easily be retained and transmitted. Would that I could denounce and banish from the language of men—as base money—the words by which they cheat and are cheated!

There are some men who are witty when they are in a bad humor, and others only when they are sad.

To reason, to argue. It is to walk with crutches in search of the truth. We come to it with a leap.

Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.