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

The rule for traveling abroad is to take our common sense with us, and leave our prejudices behind.

He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.

The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.

Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.

Satirists gain the applause of others through fear, not through love.

We are thankful for good-will rather than for services, for the motive than the quantum of favor received.