We are ashamed of our thoughts and often see them brought forth by others.

If I quake, what matters it what I quake at? Our proper vice takes form in one or another shape, according to the sex, age, or temperament of the person, and, if we are capable of fear, will readily find terrors.

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes: it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something else is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts.

I wish to write such rhymes as shall not suggest a restraint, but contrariwise the wildest freedom.

It does not to dwell on dreams and forget to live, but it is equally foolish to ignore the past – never forget.

O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught.

I have heard that death takes us away from ill things, not from good. I have heard that when we pronounce the name of man we pronounce the belief of immortality.