Men must have somewhat altered the course of nature; for they were not born wolves, yet they have become wolves. God did not give them twenty-four-pounders or bayonets, yet they have made themselves bayonets and guns to destroy each other. In the same category I place not only bankruptcies, but the law which carries off the bankrupts’ effects, so as to defraud their creditors.

We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.

Go get yourself crucified and then rise on the third day.

Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.

God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest.

The superfluous, a very necessary thing.

There is only one morality, as there is only one geometry.