People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines.... It appears to me, besides, that such people can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel.

He wanted to know how they prayed to God in El Dorado. "We do not pray to him at all," said the reverend sage. "We have nothing to ask of him. He has given us all we want, and we give him thanks continually.

Changing a habit is hard work. But it's harder to find work that would be more fulfilling

Better is the enemy of good.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

I keep to old books, for they teach me something; from the new I learn very little

One should always aim at being interesting, rather than exact.