The first man of science was he who looked into a thing, not to learn whether it furnished him with food, or shelter, or weapons, or tools, armaments, or playwiths but who sought to know it for the gratification of knowing.

Poetry is certainly something more than good sense, but it must be good sense, at all events, just as a palace is more than a house, but it must be a house, at least.

Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

A man's desire is for the woman, but the woman's desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.

When a man mistakes his thoughts for persons and things, he is mad.

He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.

The necessity for external government to man is in an inverse ratio to the vigor of his self-government. Where the last is most complete, the first is least wanted. Hence, the more virtue the more liberty.