Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book than my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life; not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.

He was doubtless an understanding Fellow that said, there was no happy Marriage but betwixt a blind Wife and a deaf Husband.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

Who ever saw a doctor use the prescription of his colleague without cutting out or adding something?

Speaking is half his that speaks, and half his that hears.

There is nothing of evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that death is no evil; to know how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint.

The only good histories are those written by those who had command in the events they describe.