We may receive so much light as not to see, and so much philosophy as to be worse than foolish.

Cats like men are flatterers.

Truth sometimes corner unawares upon Caution, and sometimes speaks in public as unconsciously as in a dream.

Principles do not mainly influence even the principled; we talk on principle, but we act on interest.

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend.

It has been my fortune to love in general those men most who have thought most differently from me, on subjects wherein others pardon no discordance. I think I have no more right to be angry with a man, whose reason has followed up a process different from what mine has, and is satisfied with the result, than with one who has gone to Venice while I am at Siena, and who writes to me that he likes the place.

Truth is a point, the subtlest and finest; harder than adamant; never to be broken, worn away, or blunted. Its only bad quality is, that it is sure to hurt those who touch it; and likely to draw blood, perhaps the life blood, of those who press earnestly upon it.