The more elaborate our means of our common sense is, the less the common sense it becomes.

But it is not given to every electrician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Richmann.

Every man, when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, and to feel his own importance, will consider himself as fully equal to any other person whatever

To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperately miserable you are intensely conscious of yourself, are a solid little lump of ego weighing a ton.

The feeling of it to my lungs was not sensibly different from that of common air; but I fancied that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards. Who can tell but that, in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury. Hitherto only two mice and myself have had the privilege of breathing it.

The wisdom of one generation will be folly in the next.

This is unfortunately a world in which things find it difficult, frequently impossible, to live up to their names.