I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me - yet I sometimes long for it.

This is the age of oddities let loose.

What opposite discoveries we have seen! (Signs of true genius, and of empty pockets.) One makes new noses, one a guillotine, One breaks your bones, one sets them in their sockets; But vaccination certainly has been A kind antithesis to Congreve's rockets.

I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.

A woman who gives any advantage to a man may expect a lover - but will sooner or later find a tyrant.

A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.

Oh, Mirth and Innocence! Oh, Milk and Water! Ye happy mixture of more happy days!