In general I do not draw well with literary men -- not that I dislike them but I never know what to say to them after I have praised their last publication.

A man of eighty has outlived probably three new schools of painting, two of architecture and poetry and a hundred in dress.

As long as I retain my feeling and my passion for Nature, I can partly soften or subdue my other passions and resist or endure those of others.

O Gold! I still prefer thee unto paper, which makes bank credit like a bark of vapour.

Good work and joyous play go hand in hand. When play stops, old age begins. Play keeps you from taking life too seriously.

The lapse of ages changes all things - time - language - the earth - the bounds of the sea - the stars of the sky, and everything 'about, around, and underneath' man, except man himself, who has always been and always will be, an unlucky rascal. The infinite variety of lives conduct but to death, and the infinity of wishes lead but to disappointment. All the discoveries which have yet been made have multiplied little but existence.

A timid mind is apt to mistake every scratch for a mortal wound.