Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person; its importance not being fully recognized for some time.

When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through either the berry of a grape, or else a tub of malt. These are the most reliable filters yet invented.

To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.

The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation.

There is no permanent absolute unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of our ideas.

There should be asylums for habitual teetotalers, but they would probably relapse into teetotalism as soon as they got out.

Nature. As the word is now commonly used it excludes nature's most interesting productions-the works of man. Nature is usually taken to mean mountains, rivers, clouds and undomesticated animals and plants. I am not indifferent to this half of nature, but it interests me much less than the other half.