Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.

I stood checked for a moment - awe, not fear, fell upon me - and whist I stood, a solemn wind began to blow, the most mournful that ever ear heard. Mournful! That is saying nothing. It was a wind that had swept the fields of mortality for a hundred centuries.

Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.

here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat-pocket; portable ecstasies might be had corked up in a pint-bottle; and peace of mind could be sent down by the mail.

Often one's dear friend talks something which one scruples to call rigmarole.

No man will ever unfold the capacities of his own intellect who does not at least checker his life with solitude.

Kings should disdain to die, and only disappear.