Though we may be learned by another's knowledge, we can never be wise but by our own experience.

I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.

No two men ever judged alike of the same thing, and it is impossible to find two opinions exactly similar, not only in different men but in the same men at different times.

My library is my kingdom, and here I try to make my rule absolute-shutting off this single nook from wife, daughter and society. Elsewhere I have only a verbal authority, and vague. Unhappy is the man, in my opinion, who has no spot at home where he can be at home to himself-to court himself and hide away.

Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.

The most beautiful lives, to my mind, are those that conform to the common human pattern, with order, but without miracle and without eccentricity.

Habituation puts to sleep the eye of our judgment.