Nature, who permits no two leaves to be exactly alike, has given a still greater diversity to human minds. Imitation, then, is a double murder; for it deprives both copy and original of their primitive existence.

Why shouldn't man be as angry about not having always been alive as about having to stop being alive?

O memory, thou bitter sweet,--both a joy and a scourge!

It is not enough to forgive; one must forget.

Where no interest is takes in science, literature and liberal pursuits, mere facts and insignificant criticisms necessarily become the themes of discourse; and minds, strangers alike to activity and meditation, become so limited as to render all intercourse with them at once tasteless and oppressive.

Kindness and generosity ... form the true morality of human actions.

nothing is so horrifying as the possibility of existing simply because we do not know how to die.