It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them; but on the contrary, men have dived for them because they fetch a high price.

Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.

There is no right faith in believing what is true, unless we believe it because it is true.

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?'

Vices and frailties correct each other, like acids and alkalies. If each vicious man had but one vice, I do not know how the world could go on.

Even supposing there were some spiritual advantage in celibacy, it ought to be completely voluntary.

The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it.