Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him, or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles; it is an act quite easy to be contemplated.

Men are respectable only as they respect.

Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less.

Philanthropies and charities have a certain air of quackery.

There is no calamity that right words will not begin to redress

The question is whether [suicide] is the way out, or the way in.

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.