The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.

Or have I passed my time in pouring words like water into empty sieves, rolling a stone up a hill and then down again, trying to prove an argument in the teeth of facts, and looking for causes in the dark, and not finding them?

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.

The worst old age is that of the mind.

The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.

A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage.

The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.