A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

All persons are puzzles until at last we find in some word or act the key to the man, to the woman; straightway all their past words and actions lie in light before us.

The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.

The greatest man in history was the poorest.

Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.

Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

If a man knows the law, find out, though he live in a pine shanty, and resort to him. And if a man can pipe or sing, so as to wrap the imprisoned soul in an elysium; or can paint a landscape, and convey into souls and ochres all the enchantments of Spring or Autumn; or can liberate and intoxicate all people who hear him with delicious songs and verses; it is certain that the secret cannot be kept; the first witness tells it to a second, and men go by fives and tens and fifties to his doors.