I have a vocabulary all my own. I "pass the time" when it is wet and disagreeable. When it is fine I do not wish to pass it; I ruminate it and hold on to it. We should hasten over the bad, and settle upon the good.

There is some shadow of delight and delicacy which smiles upon and flatters us even in the very lap of melancholy.

It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things more restraint and order in my morals than in my opinions, and my lust less depraved than my reason.

I determine nothing; I do not comprehend things; I suspend judgment; I examine.

Why dost thou complain of this world? It detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain.

Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses.

Obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in, and best becoming, a mean and illiterate soul.