A man's wife has more power over him than the state has.

Let the stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen.

It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to write, nothing to infer. But our wiser years still run back to the despised recollections of childhood. . . .

At present, man applies to nature but half his force. He works on the world with his understanding alone. He lives in it, and masters it by a penny-wisdom; and he that works most in it, is but a half-man, and whilst his arms are strong and his digestion good, his mind is imbruted, and he is a selfish savage.

Every promise of the soul has innumerable fulfillments; each of its joys ripens into a new want.

Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories and criticism.

Good nature is stronger than tomahawks.