The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul.

Stagnation is something worse than death. It is corruption, also.

I know not that there is anything in nature more soothing to the mind than the contemplation of the moon, sailing, like some planetary bark, amidst a sea of bright azure. The subject is certainly hackneyed; the moon has been sung by poet and poetaster. Is there any marvel that it should be so?

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

It should console us for the fact that sin has not totally disappeared from the world, that the saints are not wholly deprived of employment.

Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.

He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.