Taking to pieces is the trade of those who cannot construct.

Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor.

What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour?

The first questions are always to be asked, and the wisest doctor is gravelled by the inquisitiveness of a child.

Every word we speak is million-faced or convertible to an indefinite number of applications. If it were not so we could read no book. Your remark would only fit your case, not mine.

Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual

If we consider what happens in conversation, in reveries, in remorse, in times of passion, in surprises, in the instructions of dreams, wherein often we see ourselves in masquerade,--the droll disguises only magnifying and enhancing a real element, and forcing it on our distinct notice,--we shall catch many hints that will broaden and lighten into knowledge of the secret of nature.