The good opinion of the vulgar is injurious.

And one might therefore say of me that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other people's flowers, and that of my own I have only provided the string that ties them together.

Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.

Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.

A man may by custom fortify himself against pain, shame, and suchlike accidents; but as to death, we can experience it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it

No spiritual mind remains within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its own strength.

My opinion is that we must lend ourselves to others and give ourselves only to ourselves. If my will happened to be prone to mortgage and attach itself, I would not last: I am too tender, both by nature and by practice.