What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

Freedom is the essence of this faith. It has for its object simply to make men good and wise. Its institutions then should be as flexible as the wants of men. That form out of which the life and suitableness have departed should be as worthless in its eyes as the dead leaves that are falling around us.

We judge of a man's wisdom by his hope, knowing that the inexhaustibleness of nature is an immortal youth.

The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are, --/ Never read a book that is not a year old./ Never read any but the famed books./ Never read any but what you like.

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.