Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss.

"Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation." -If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he and I was I.

Nature has, herself, I fear, imprinted in man a kind of instinct to inhumanity.

Reason has so many forms that we do not know which to choose-Experiment has no fewer.

We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions; we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.

Difficulty is a coin the learned make use of like jugglers, to conceal the inanity of their art.

Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end.