I had rather fashion my mind than furnish it.

I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.

There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness itself

Man is quite insane. He wouldn?t know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen.

The good, supreme, divine poetry is above the rules and reason. Whoever discerns its beauty with a firm, sedate gaze does not see it, any more than he sees the splendor of a lightning flash. It does not persuade our judgement, it ravishes and overwhelms it.

Some, either from being glued to vice by a natural attachment, or from long habit, no longer recognize its ugliness.

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.