A wise traveler never despises his own country.

We imagine that the admiration of the works of celebrated men has become common, because the admiration of their names has become so.

It is easier taking the beaten path than making our way over bogs and precipices. The great difficulty in philosophy is to come to every question with a mind fresh and unshackled by former theories, though strengthened by exercise and information.

The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously, and those who have produced immortal works have done so without knowing how or why.

What I mean by living to one's self is living in the world, as in it, not of it.

To think ill of mankind and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.

The difference between the vanity of a Frenchman and an Englishman seems to be this: the one thinks everything right that is French, the other thinks everything wrong that is not English.