The best of us being unfit to die, what an unexpressible absurdity to put the worst to death.

The moment when a man's head drops off is seldom or never, I am inclined to think, precisely the most agreeable of his life.

We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so the moment after death.

In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvelous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it.

There is great incongruity in this idea of monuments, since those to whom they are usually dedicated need no such recognition to embalm their memory; and any man who does, is not worthy of one.

Articulate words are a harsh clamor and dissonance. When man arrives at his highest perfection, he will again be dumb.

The book, if you would see anything in it, requires to be read in the clear, brown, twilight atmosphere in which it was written; if opened in the sunshine, it is apt to look exceedingly like a volume of blank pages.