Eloquence is an engine invented to manage and wield at will the fierce democracy, and, like medicine to the sick, is only employed in the paroxysms of a disordered state.

A man must not always tell all, for that be folly; but what a man says should be what he thinks.

We perceive no charms that are not sharpened, puffed out, and inflated by artifice. Those which glide along naturally and simply easily escape a sight so gross as ours.

We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

I seek in the reading of books, only to please myself, by an honest diversion.

Whenever a new finding is reported to the world people say - It is probably not true. Later on, when the reliability of a new finding has been fully confirmed, people say - OK, it may be true but it has no real significance. At last, when even the significance of the finding is obvious to everybody, people say - Well, it might have some significance, but the idea is not new.